Spring and fall
by esama
Summary: In the end Uzumaki Naruto was just like a long training mission. AU with OOCness. Sort of super!Naruto, but not really. Drabble story.
1. Aki of the Mi

**Spring and fall  
**

**1. **

Aki was one of the six orphans from the _Mi_ program. He wasn't the best one among them, but he wasn't the worse one either. He studied, he trained, he learned and he advanced just like everyone else. It was only way of living he knew, the life in training centre - the Orphanage, as some of the trainers called it. And though it wasn't easy or comfortable, he had never minded living there, not really. He had a bed to sleep in, food to eat and something new to do, to learn every day. He even had a friend and a partner, Haru.

When the Hokage came in and found him there, Aki didn't know what there was so odd about it - or about him - that sent the Hokage into such shock. He was just one of the Mi orphans, yet the old man acted so horrified as he turned on the teachers and berated them, yelled at them, nearly punished them. Aki had never been really afraid of anything in his life - life in the Orphanage was always so controlled that there had never been any need to be afraid - but when he saw his teachers covering, he had to admit that he was nervous.

It was nowhere near as horrifying what happened after - when the Hokage dismantled the Orphanage, scattered the teachers and send the six Mi orphans out. To find he had a name other than Aki - _Uzumaki Naruto_ - and that his best friend Haru was actually named _Rock Lee_ was in a way interesting, but he wouldn't have wished to learn that at the cost he did.

"You're free now," the Hokage said him, like it was some sort of consolation and pointed at the village. "Anything you want to do, Naruto. Anything at all. I'll make sure you'll get it."

Freedom. Aki had never heard anything as terrifying in his life.

**2.**

The Mi program was one of many that had been started nearly hundred years ago when the Hidden Leaf village had been started. Others had faded and died out, some had been put down only to rise again different, like the Ne which originally had been a organisation of security and supervision, looking the village from inside and seeing the mistakes and flaws and seeking out to repair them - and which now worked for different goals. The Mi program hadn't been anything near so elaborate, though, but it had been one of the most lasting of the twelve that had originally been started.

The Mi's primary function was to take advantage of a resource that otherwise could've been nothing but useless strain on the village's resources which, for a military village, was unacceptable. So, the Mi found orphans with potential and trained them. Each year at least five were selected for the training. Some of them, according to their potential, were trained to become part of the ANBU, while others were trained to be Hunter-nin, some became Medic-nin, and so forth. All training was specialised according to their individual talents which were, over the course of their training that could last anything from five to twelve years according to their intelligence and learning speed, were honed to brutal perfection.

The Mi children were trained harder and faster than any other young ninja-to-be because there was no one to say otherwise. No parents to intervene with the harsh training - no one to introduce the element of humanity into the course. That was why they were chosen, that was why they became the best among their age groups. That was why the Mi children started out on harder missions earlier than other ninja in the village, par from some prodigies… but this was also why the Mi children rarely made it into certain positions in the village hierarchy. Administrative positions were often beyond their reach because they had been trained to follow their orders, and no humanitarian position was fit for them because they very rarely understood the complexities of human behaviour well enough.

The Mi program, in short, created tools for the village - nothing more and nothing less.

**3.**

Aki had been in the ANBU training course and would've become one within some years according to his trainers. They had been training him and Haru - or Lee, as he was now supposed to call him - along side each other, and they had been intending to turn them into a functional partnership. Haru's long range weapon and ninjutsu knowledge and Aki's short-range combat skills with his sealing knowledge complimented each other in surprising ways, turning them into functional multi-range-combat-unit. The last years of their training, they had been meant to be concentrating primarily on stealth, tracking and infiltration, to complete the circle of skills.

No more, though, Aki thought as he looked around in the apartment he had been issued with. It was larger than he was used to and had more furniture; chairs, tables, actual bed instead of mere futon… even some potted plants. There was also separate kitchen, living room and bedroom and his own bathroom, and he didn't quite know what he was supposed to _do_ with all the space. What baffled him the most were the symbols of spirals on all the walls - the Hokage had said that they were the symbols of his clan, the Uzumaki clan, but he had no idea what that was supposed to mean to him.

All the clothes he had been issued with were orange. Aki didn't know why - because the shirt he had worn when the Hokage had walked in on his training session with Haru had been orange, or for some other reason? He didn't mind, though he didn't really understand - the Orange/Green colour coding had been part of their training, marking sides of the battle. Did this mean he was going to be the enemy side from here on, as most of the other ninja wore green vests? Would Haru wear orange too - or green, like his shirt from the time?

Haru had gotten apartment too - all the Mi children who were old enough to manage by themselves had. Only, the apartments were scattered across the village, with the nearly entire village between Aki and his best friend. The Hokage had never said it out loud, but Aki knew what it was - what it meant that all his weapons and scrolls had been taken from him and he was told not to get into fights. The Mi was disbanded- they were no longer supposed to know each other. They weren't even supposed to know themselves.

Which, Aki assumed, wouldn't be that hard. On his way to the market, people had glared and hissed at him and someone had called him a monster behind his back. It had taken him a while to figure out they were talking to him, about him. He still didn't know why.

**4.**

Aki had never been indecisive before - there had never been any need, as all decisions had been made for him. Now that seemed to be all he could be. He could go out any time he could - but why, and where should he go, what was normal for boy of his age? He could do anything he wanted to - what should he do, what should he spent his effort on, what was worthwhile, what was fitting? Should he try and blend in with the village, should he try and see if he could become more like a civilian like the Hokage wished - should he keep up with his training? Would he even be allowed, or would all training grounds be banned from him, all libraries closed? And what should he _eat_? All the food in the Orphanage had been prepared for them - he had no idea how to make some himself.

He wished he could find Haru and just ask. Haru hadn't really been any smarter than he was, but together they had always been able to come up with good strategies to compliment their training whenever the teachers had been busy with other children. Together, Aki was sure they could've figured this out too.

But he couldn't - it was against his orders and he knew better than to disobey orders, even if they were never said out loud. He wasn't supposed to know Haru - know Lee - and it was possible that he would never see him again, that they would never work together again. It was time he learned to make decisions without the input of his partner.

The realisation that he wouldn't have Haru to help him with decision making made him realise that Haru wouldn't be there to complement his fighting style, to cover the holes Aki's own, close range combat style had. There would be no ninjutsu to cover him, no weapons, nothing. Just him - and his style was mortally flawed.

The realisation that, after weeks of indecisive uselessness, he had something to do, something important, something vital - that he had actually a _goal_ that no one had to order him to complete but which had to be done nonetheless, was so heady and so gratifying, that Aki only barely managed to keep himself from crying with joy.

**5.**

He had been trained as close-range fighter and sealing-expert for a reason, however. He didn't have the chakra control for ninjutsu, and though he could throw weapons, the effort required for him to master aim and technique was too great to bother with it. Bare handed and bladed fighting styles were simply easier for him, and he was good at them thanks to his stamina - and sealing was something someone with his chaotic and expansive chakra reserves could be perfect at, his seals were powerful enough to truly count in battle situations.

But without Haru's long ranged protection, it wouldn't matter as much - without ninjutsu, he was practically defenceless in a battle against more varied ninja. So, he tried to correct that flaw and tried the many chakra control training exercises Haru had gone through - and, thanks to unique malformation of his chakra coils, he had gone over a lot of them. Aki didn't manage to do any of them, though, not even after days of trying, so he eventually turned to ranged weapons instead, making his own from whatever he could and using kitchen knifes for throwing exercises.

He was abysmal at it - and at every other _Haru_ thing he tried. He had suspected he would be - there was a reason he hadn't been taught any of them, after all - but he hadn't thought it would be this bad. Maybe it was his orientation or because he had no teacher, but he didn't get any of it right.

When the Hokage caught him at it, at trying to master aim with flawed weapon and flawed understanding of throw dynamics, Aki was too frustrated to even be that guilty for breaking the orders to not keep on training. When he went to apologise and inquire as to what his punishment would be, however, the old man merely smiled and asked him if he would like to go to the Ninja Academy.

"You could learn along with others of your age," the old man suggested - but he had conditions. No one was to know Aki was from the Mi and he would have to start to answer to the name _Naruto_. And, most importantly, he would have to be a _normal kid_ - to blend in and seem neither stronger, more experienced nor better trained than anyone else.

"I accept," Aki answered immediately. It wasn't like he was about to decline orders, after all - and under teachers, he would surely master long range weapons and chakra control better than by himself. The Hokage's order about restricting his other, better trained talents was sound as well - it would work as a way to keep Aki concentrated on his weaker points. And, becoming Uzumaki Naruto who would be a _normal kid_, untrained like the rest of the Academy children, it would be good stealth and infiltration training - the one he was supposed to get with the Mi, but hadn't.

He never found out that the Hokage had really wanted him just to be a kid again, the Uzumaki Naruto he had been supposed to be - to be a kid and have a normal childhood the Mi had denied him.

**6.**

Aki thought long and hard how he would construct the alter ego of Uzumaki Naruto. He had a start already - the people who had seen him as Naruto had always seen him wearing orange, so that would be what he would wear. Also, since the spirals were his family's crest and the Hokage had so pointedly showed it to him, he would wear that too - the clan crest on his shoulder and the village version on his back. It wouldn't mean much to anyone else - he had looked into the Uzumaki and information about them was fairly scarce - but perhaps it would appease the Hokage.

As for what came to everything else… that was harder. Aki had already deduced that majority of the village had something against Uzumaki Naruto - something about his family, perhaps? It didn't matter in the end, but it affected the result of Naruto - because he would've been raised under that loathing and he would've grown accordingly. For a while Aki considered making Naruto sullen, withdrawn and hateful - it seemed like natural reaction for something like that - but he doubted the Hokage would be satisfied with that, as it would hinder being normal and blending in.

In the end he decided that Naruto would ignore the hate altogether - like he had so far. Opinions, after all, never mattered. Only orders did.

He decided to evolve Naruto's character according to the elements surrounding him - and start with him being quiet, curious, and most likely the worst of his class. He would be entering the Ninja Academy couple years later than his age-mates had, so he would have to know some, but if he entered with a prominent skill set when he was an orphan and had no one to teach him, it would be very suspicious. So, whatever he knew would be flawed and self learned - and, naturally, both his taijutsu and sealing would both be abysmal, deferring the Hokage's orders.

After some thought, he decided to make Naruto a very optimistic personality - he would have to be, to be able to ignore the hate and the fact that his skills were so poor, and still keep on training. Aki had also noted that the loudest of personalities were the easiest to forget and ignore in a ninja village - after all, everyone knew it was the quiet ones you needed to keep an eye on, and those who boasted their talents often only had their boasting and no talents. Naruto would be that, he would boast - and hopefully, blend in better for it.

With that decided, Aki selected the most awkward jumper among all the orange clothes he had been issued with, figured out a set of signature positions, moves and words to cement his character, grinned at his mirror reflection with his eyes closed and thus, Uzumaki Naruto was created.

**7.**

The inability to read and write came by accident on his first day in academy. Like all sealers, Aki wrote his own, special shorthand that no one, not even Haru, had been able to understand. When he started writing the notes on his first class in this shorthand, jotting down every fact about the Hokages and the creation of the Leaf Village down carefully, the teacher saw it. Whilst to Aki the writing was clear as day, to the teacher it looked nothing but nonsensical squiggles and so the man thought he couldn't write at all - that he was only mimicking what the others were doing, and in the end only scribbling nonsensical mess into his notebook.

Aki, after moment of consideration, went with it - he had to hide his sealing knowledge too, and trying to explain shorthand would break his cover. So, he for the first time in his life acted embarrassed, and while the kids around him laughed and snorted at him, the teacher only nodded. After the class, he was offered extra lessons to teach him how to read and write, which he took and dutifully thanked for.

The classes ended up being a myriad of new lessons. He was circulated between the academy teachers and whoever had the time taught him new letters and new words. Some taught better than others, others went their way to correct what he had written _wrong, _intentionally sabotaging the tutelage of the other and more attentive teachers. It was utterly fascinating, and Aki eagerly did everything wrong just so that he could watch the odd, chaotic display a little longer - he had never considered learning understanding body language, but this, _this_ was a great lesson.

He had a concrete proof of the teachers' opinions of him in the way they taught him because he knew exactly what they were doing right and wrong. Some, like Umino Iruka, were good at their job and maybe even liked what they did - because did it _well_ even when they obviously shared that deep-rooted dislike for Naruto that everyone else did. Their smiles, sometimes, weren't even faked. Others, on other hand, just showed him what to do, but didn't correct him when he rehearsed mistakes - these were the ones who did their jobs, but nothing more, and their opinions were very intricate and interesting. The last ones, however, were the most fascinating to study. People like Touji Mizuki went deliberately their way to make him worse, teaching him flaws - all the while smiling at him kindly and acting friendly.

There was lot of mixing between the three groups, like Yashu Katsumi who seemed to hate her job and hate Naruto even more, but still taught him as well as Iruka. Then there was Sei Kazuo who didn't care much about him one way or the other, but didn't bother to correct him when he did something wrong. What Aki really wanted to know was how Areno Shuji had gotten to be a Chuunin - the man didn't teach him one way or the other, just made him write lines when it was his turn to teach him while he spent the time going over everything he hated about Naruto. It wasn't very fitting behaviour for a ninja - nothing like what Mizuki did, definitely not. If there was a master of deception in the Academy, it was Mizuki and Aki couldn't help but admire him despite the fact that the man seemed to wish him dead.

The handwriting Naruto got as the result of the mismatched teaching was a mess - completely different from Aki's precise hand or his complex shorthand - but it ended up being so difficult for other people to read that it could've just as well been just another shorthand. In the end Aki learned much more from it than how to read and write, though, so he considered it success.

**8.**

Aki spent lot of time studying his fellow students in the first months in the Academy - more so than he spent actually _studying_, though that was because the Academy had yet to teach him something he didn't already know. The kids were much more interesting to watch, and as he was supposed to be one of them, studying them was as important as anything else.

He, honestly, couldn't see how they would ever it as ninjas.

They were blatant, undisciplined and untrained; they flittered around without care and had seemingly no determination what so ever. Well, some did, but they were few and far between - Sasuke of the Uchiha clan, Kiba of the Inuzuka, Shino of the Aburame and… that was about it, actually. Nearly thirty students in a class and only three of them seemed anything remotely like ninja. The rest were either awkward, bored or down right lazy during their lessons, the girls spending the time passing messages and giggling and the boys fooling around and acting uninterested.

Sure, there were some who showed signs of training. Shikamaru of the Nara walked with precise calculated steps of someone who kept everything around him within his field of awareness. Choji of the Akamichi had the muscles of someone who fought hard every day - though they were fairly well hidden in his overall bulk. Ino of the Yamanaka knew surprising amount of some of the more focused ninja arts - clan ninjutsu most of all. The best among them all was no doubt Hinata of the Hyuuga - but she was too shy and too awkward to show any of it.

Majority of the rest came from civilian families or families with only couple of Shinobi in them - they had no prior training and only vague idea what they were getting themselves into. Some of them tried, of course, they tried every hard, but the ones from Clans had advantage of getting extra tutelage home and the rest were hopelessly behind.

Aki himself was in unique position of being both and neither. He decided he rather liked Naruto's dead-last position in the class - it was excellent spot to observe the others from and to learn

**9.**

It was the first time Aki got blamed for something someone else did. He was surprised to find that Kiba, despite his understanding over taijutsu and determination to get better, was actually one of the least interested students in the Academy - and that he spend majority of the recess time messing around with other people. This time Kiba had set some tacks on Iruka's chair - a trick that he had used before but which had failed to work. This time however, Iruka was too distracted by the test papers he was carrying, so he had sat without looking.

"Uzumaki Naruto!" he roared out, and wide eyed Aki was too surprised to even try to object. On the side Kiba grinned victoriously giving him sarcastic thumbs up while the rest of the class giggled and Iruka yelled some more.

It was fairly weird for Aki - both the prank and the fact that Iruka blamed him - but in the same time, it was very interesting. It wasn't the last time though. The following day Kiba set an eraser to fall to a teacher's head, and Naruto was blamed for it again - only this time he was prepared for it.

"Ha, such an obvious trick - any ninja worth their kunai should've been able to pick that up!" he boasted and when Iruka flushed angry red, Aki thumbed his nose for good measure. The reaction it got out of the students was interesting - some were laughing with him, others at him, some were saying what an idiot he was, and when Iruka ordered detention, they all laughed at him once more. Such a un-ninja-like thing to do and such un-ninja-like reaction - Aki had no idea what _any_ of it meant.

So, he tried it himself, and, using some of Kiba's methods, he set some test pranks to study the reactions a little more. Some of them were caught by the targets, others caught their targets unawares and the reactions were always so very strange. When it was the teachers, they never acted like Aki thought they should - they were ninja, after all. Not only should've they picked them all up before they sprung, but the anger and outrage that followed was against everything Aki had been taught in the Mi. That only made it more interesting, though.

Why he decided to keep going wasn't because of study of human psychology and reactions though - or even the fact that it was a _normal kid_ type of thing to do and thus approved by the Hokage. It was training. Traps were another thing Aki hadn't been good at - it had supposed to be another thing he and Haru would learn later and thus never had. It also worked well as stealth training, as setting pranks too lot of sneaking around undetected if you wanted it to be successful. The strategy of setting elaborate pranks without anyone noticing was good training, and when ever he did get caught in the action, the retreat was another way to train speed. Later his escape plans begun being as complex as his pranks, and in the end the whole thing turned into full course training.

It was brilliant, really, making something seemingly so inane into something extremely useful - because, really, setting pranks taught him more than any official course in the Academy had yet, aside from the extra writing lessons. It made him wonder if that was why Kiba was so keen on pranks - if he too was secretly training strategy stealth, infiltration, traps and safe retreat under everyone's noses.

**10.**

Thanks to the fact that their classes were so far from each other - and that Aki was year younger - he didn't find out that Haru was in the Academy too, until almost half a year after he had joined. The meeting struck him completely by surprise, as Aki made his way towards the teacher's lounge for his next detention, and Haru walked past him with some upper year students.

Aki barely recognised his old partner. Haru's hair was short bowl cut now, and his eyes were open wide - ridiculously wide - which was even more shocking than the hair cut, considering that when Aki and Haru had been in the Mi, he rarely if ever opened them. The chakra-coil malformation Haru had made his ability to sense chakra with surprising accuracy, and he had rarely used his eyes in order to train the sense as much as possible.

It was only after getting over the shock of seeing his partner so wide eyed that Aki noticed what he was wearing. A martial artist's training uniform with black shirt and white pants and light footwear. It was uniform that, by the looks of it, was meant to maximise the mobility of legs and feet. Which, considering the fact that Haru had never had any talent with taijutsu, was more than telling.

They passed each other without a word or even a second glance, and as Aki entered the teachers' lounge he wondered what the other saw in him, in the orange jumpsuit that did the exact opposite of Haru's - no, _Lee's_ - uniform by inhibiting his movements. In the end, he shook his head and decided not to think about it, not to ask. Naruto and Lee, after all, didn't know each other - had never met before. They had nothing in common.

Though maybe Naruto and Lee could fight alongside each other, one day.

x

I glanced over another of those "Naruto is secretly a badass and was trained to be elite among elite when he was a little kid, but everyone thinks he's a loser," stories, and I didn't really care for how it turned out. So, I started writing my own version. I will probably try to continue this one, I have plans for it, but it kind of works by itself too, doesn't it?

My apologies for OOCness and grammar errors and such.


	2. Haru of the Mi

**Spring and fall  
**

**11.**

It had taken a long time for Haru to dare to do anything. Between the two of them, Aki had been always the one to _start_ something, after all - he had been the one to nudge them into a discussion and debate about whether this strategy would work, or how about that one, or whether they should go this or that way in their next training session. Haru had gotten used to that - that every time he needed it, Aki would be there to give him the push. Of the two of them, his partner had always been he one to take the initiative.

But Aki wasn't there anymore - he was somewhere else in the village, being someone else - being Uzumaki Naruto. And being left without his initiative left Haru reeling. What was he supposed to do, what could he do, what could he become? Anything he wishes, according to Hokage but it seemed so unbelievable - and down right ridiculous - the more he thought about it. And yet he had an apartment and money and there was village just outside his door and he could go almost anywhere he wished. Anywhere at all.

Except to his partner. Or to the other Mi orphans.

Anything he wanted to be. It was the desperation of simply not knowing what to think about that which made him plead, "Can I be a ninja?" because being a ninja was all he knew, all he trusted he could be. What did he know about being a civilian and leading a civilian life? His whole existence was centred on training, discipline and getting stronger, getting better. A jutsu after a jutsu, a new weapon to throw, to launch, to release. That was all there was to it - and it didn't change, even if Mi was gone.

"If that is what you really want," the Hokage said - and then laid down the conditions. Don't use ninjutsu, don't use weapons, act like you know very little of ninja arts - and never ever tell anyone you're from Mi.

"Be a normal kid," the Hokage said, and smiled kindly. "Normal Rock Lee."

Haru wasn't surprised by conditions - there were always conditions to every exercise. Keep your eyes closed, don't move from your spot, don't move your feet, don't look at a target, feel, _feel_. Except there was so much to feel now - outside the chakra repelling walls of the Orphanage, there were so many ninja to feel. Walking down the street, hanging about this and that restaurant, jumping over the rooftops. It was making his chest ache.

"I'll do it. All of it," Haru nodded - and opened his eyes. He still could sense the Hokage's strength and the ninja across the street, the ones hovering on the roofs around them, and the one just across his apartment - probably watching over the Hokage. But as he let the visual distractions pull him in, it lessened a little, lost its priority.

He didn't know if he liked the world of sights yet. He didn't know if he ever would.

**12.**

Haru had always prided himself in his understanding of numbers. That was what made a good ninjutsu and weaponry specialist, or so he had been taught. One could go about it by sense or by instinct, but if you wanted to be excellent, you needed to count, calculate, and keep every number straight in your head. Calculate the arch, the wind speed, the terrain elements, to what efficiency would a jutsu work, what kind of forces the weapon had to fight against after he launched it. Haru had always been very good with numbers.

He calculated his chances of success and failure at the academy often, even when selecting the clothes for himself. Should he wear colour, what colour, why, what type of clothing, what style…? He went with nondescript and generic - he suspect many of the ninja children would be wearing training uniforms, as it _was_ a ninja academy, so that was what he went with it. Colour would draw attention, something he had been prohibited from doing, and style did the same. Generic was the best option.

At first he thought of getting a vest or a belt pouch for scrolls and weapons - but he decided against it. Scrolls and blades weren't in his arsenal, not anymore, no more that ninjutsu and weaponry were. He needed to learn taijutsu in any case. His chances of survival without Aki there to shield him from the physical blows were fairly low.

Haru realised soon that his long braid would only prove a weak point now that he couldn't use his hair in ninjutsu, so he cut it. He kept the cut-off hair - he knew better than to merely discard something that could be used in sealing, especially after watching his partner nearly shave himself with the effort of making the perfect scrolls. Maybe one day his hair would be useful in that sort of thing. If not with Aki's sealing, then with something else. So, he sealed it in a wrap and hid it away, to wait for a day it could be useful.

Another thing he needed to do was to learn to stop feeling. It had been drilled into him over the years in Mi - _keep your eyes shut, feel, Haru, feel, your chakra is more accurate than your eyes_. It was, after all he couldn't see behind him but he could feel it - and he could feel with surprising range, which had made him a good for long range training even if his decent chakra control hadn't already done it. But he couldn't be the long range specialist anymore - no more than he could ignore the usefulness of taijutsu. So, he didn't need his senses anymore, not as much.

And if he kept reacting to things that weren't within his field of vision, he would only confuse people around him and most likely make them suspicious of him.

So, he kept his eyes open and let himself be drawn into the details. Into hair styles and fabrics, into necklaces and bracelets people wore, into the shoes they favoured. There were lot of head bands in the LeafVillage, and he let himself be distracted by how they gleamed in the sunlight. All the things he wasn't supposed to do - let himself be sidetracked by meaningless things - he not only let himself do, but he welcomed it all.

And every night, when he got back home, he closed his eyes and meditated for two hours straight, just feeling the apartment building around him, feeling the bird nests in the rafters and the footsteps of the ninja above. It wouldn't do to lose his senses completely after all - and even if he had been prohibited from using them now, it was highly probable that he would one day need his Mi skills.

**13.**

Ninjutsu, whilst being all about numbers, was also all about paths, especially the long ranged one. The user had to be aware of the distance the attack would cross, and the route it would take - was it open, what was the length, the temperature, the wind speed, at what velocity could the attack go, what kind of obstacles did it have to go around. Most ninjutsu were only launched when the path to the target was perfectly clear, but that wasn't always option and Haru had been taught, over and over, that if you had you, you _could_ launch a ninjutsu right in front of you - and have it reach its target directly behind you. It was just the matter of training.

Haru wasn't at good with seeing the paths as he was with the numbers - that part of his training was still finished - but in the NinjaAcademy he saw them. There were so many people there, so much furniture, corners and corridors and small niches and grooves here and there. It was incredibly intricate layout, nothing like the training courses back with the Mi, and he found to his surprise calculating the trajectories and power loss of the ninjutsu if he wanted it to get through he crowd and at this or that student on the other end of it.

Then it became something else, as he saw one of the girls in his class weave her way through the crowd to her friend.

Aki had always had good awareness with that sort of thing - he was the taijutsu expert after all, so he needed to be aware of the people around him and act accordingly, in case he needed to fight them. He did it effortlessly and without a second thought, knowing where this and that person was and how fast they moved. Haru had seen it countless times - how his partner had faced off against all the other students and some of the teachers of the Mi, fighting each of them in dance of rapid blocks and cuts and blows, constantly aware of each and everyone of them and able to throw up a defence for every blow. Well, maybe not every, not against six or more with some of them being highly trained ANBU members, but most.

Haru had always admired that, both the ability and fluency and the simple natural way Aki did it, probably even without noticing it. His partner had always been creature of instincts - he went what with felt right and he was good at that. It was, however, also one of the reasons Aki had never been taught ninjutsu - thanks to always following his instincts, he didn't manage the constant mental shifting and tuning required to successfully launch a ninjutsu. But on the flipside, while Haru could handle the adjustments easily in his head in order to get a ninjutsu right, he didn't have the natural instinct to block and dodge and weave through crowd of assailants.

If someone threw a blow at Haru, he froze - and got struck. Even with training that hadn't really changed and in the end it was probably why he had been partnered with Aki in the first place - because he needed someone like that to cover him when he launched his attacks. He had always hated it, both the fact that his instincts worked against him and that he was never given enough time to try and repair that flaw.

Now, though…

When he had decided to go with a taijutsu training uniform, it had been mostly about appearances - and in lesser part, of the fact that he did have that weakness and it wouldn't do to hinder his ability to correct it. In hindsight he realised what a good decision it had been to go with the uniform. He didn't only lack Aki, after all - but in a sense himself as well. He was forbidden from using ninjutsu, he was forbidden from using weapons. What was left? He could, with his chakra control, learn Genjutsu or ijutsu, he could train to become a medic… but, being trained to be part of a combat unit, he couldn't imagine either. No, what was left for him was taijutsu.

It would make sense. He needed taijutsu now, when he had nothing else to use. Also, he didn't know much - or anything - about taijutsu, which would make learning it seem natural in the Academy. And, one day, if he would be allowed to use his Mi abilities once more, it would be better for him and his career that he no longer had the weakness against close-ranged combat. Or even against other ninjutsu users and weapon's specialists.

Unlike him, Aki had never truly been helpless in a battle. Even against long ranged attacks he had slight advantage Haru had never had - Aki could duck easy and fast, just get out of the way and avoid being hit. That, in Haru's eyes, had always held taijutsu in higher importance than ninjutsu - and why he had eventually put so much effort in weapon's training, because throwing kunai and shuriken was just faster than launching ninjutsu was, and it could catch taijutsu specialist better than ninjutsu could. But Aki still had always had that edge - he could simply move out of way, and thanks to his training he could do it fast.

Therefore, taijutsu was superior to all but the fastest forms of ninjutsu.

The problem was the reason why he had never been taught any - it hadn't changed.

**14.**

Trying to fail at ninjutsu was hard.

For Haru - who still hadn't gotten used to being called Lee - it threatened to come up at the slightest nudge - single seal could send his chakra half way into a well memorised and well rehearsed attack. It was mostly thanks to the malformation of his chakra coils - his chakra was always surging in a certain way, enabling both his extra sense and him to throw ninjutsu with speed many couldn't manage. Haru never had to _gather_ his chakra - his coils did it always, all the time, anywhere.

To not do ninjutsu was for him harder than doing it at times. While the trajectories and paths came from his head, the ninjutsu itself was carved into his body - it came out almost automatically now, thanks to years of gruelling training. So, trying to act like he didn't know any of it, didn't know how to gather his chakra, didn't know how to shape it… it seemed nearly impossible. How do you fake something that came naturally? It was like trying not to walk!

It _was_, he realised, like trying not to walk. And easiest way to not walk, was to sit. Well, it wasn't that easy, but all he really needed to do was not do anything. He would do the hand signs a little wrong, and when his chakra tried to rise, he would try to suppress it. He had never done that before, except in some stealth exercises in which he needed to hide his chakra, but he could do it. After that… nothing. He would do nothing. It was that simple.

And then it wasn't.

"How do you think you can make it into a genin when you can't even do any ninjutsu?" his classmates jeered. "When you can't even gather chakra?"

It was utterly baffling. After having grown next to Aki - who never had done any ninjutsu what so ever - Haru didn't quite understand what there was so strange about it. Of course, the year level he was attending to all already knew basic forms of ninja arts - not very well, of course, but they knew some chakra control exercises. Some had already mastered henge, kawarimi and bunshin - majority knew at least one of the basic three. He, with his prohibition on ninjutsu, could do none of them - but that wasn't exactly an obstacle for a ninja. Aki would've become _masterful_ ninja - excellent ANBU - even if he had never learned any of it.

But these, Haru realised, these weren't young ninja like the ones he was used to. The Mi children knew what they were, what was their lot in life and exactly what was to become of them. Aki would've been sealing master with incredible efficiency with taijutsu on the side. Haru would've been a ninjutsu master, with weaponry knowledge to back his talents. Together they would've formed a special assault and assassination unit, once their stealth and infiltration training was complete. And that was it, that was all there had been to it.

It was nothing like that in the NinjaAcademy. Sure, there were some like Neji Hyuuga who already had their futures decided for them, and then there were ones like Tenten who had decided her future for herself - both whom were working relentlessly for them. But for the two of them there was over twenty others and by the looks of it most of them had no idea what was to come, or what would truly become of them. They, Haru realised, didn't even know if they would become genin at all.

They were all insecure in way Haru had never been - because for him there had never been a cause. And while Rock Lee's future wasn't exactly set in stone, he couldn't be worried now either. Because he knew how the hierarchy of ninja went. Regardless of Mi's disbanding, regardless of his loss of his partner, regardless of all of it - Haru was still a ninjutsu specialist and even if his element wasn't exactly uncommon in the land of the Fire, his precision and control made it more than useful. And Fire, when paired with his side element, which was Earth of all things, made some interesting things happen.

It wasn't something that ninja village like Leaf could just shove under carpet - or something the Hokage would forget. As assets went, Haru's ninjutsu was too great to just discard just because of the way it had been learned. As was Aki's sealing. Even if Haru wouldn't become ANBU like planned, he would become _something_. It was inevitable.

"Even if I can't do ninjutsu, I will become a shinobi," Haru answered when he was once more mocked for failing to live up to the teacher's expectation in the ninjutsu class. But he couldn't exactly say that he was only faking his failure, so… "I will become a specialist of taijutsu great enough to make it as a ninja!"

Neji Hyuuga, who was watching him from the side, snorted. "The fate of dead lasts like you is to fail. Only a genius would make it with taijutsu alone - and you are no genius. Give it up; you will never be a ninja, not even if you trained for thousand years."

Haru didn't allow himself to be taken aback by that - no matter how ridiculous it sounded. Everyone in the Mi was genius of one sort or another - they had all been forced to be. "I'll be a genius of hard work, and train thousand year's worth in one year then!" he answered and was fairly proud of himself for not laughing at Neji's face.

**15.**

The urge to laugh at someone for their misconception took Haru a little bit by surprise. He had been trained to follow orders, after all, and nothing more - and to feel amused or vindictive by someone else's thoughts wasn't what he had been taught to be or do. He wondered for a while if it was because he was starting to become a teenager rather like child - because his hormonal activity was changing and what not.

Whatever it was, he didn't like it. He had been taught to be succinct and plain spoken - straightforward and calm. This strange desire to, well, thumb his nose at someone else in some strange feeling of superiority wasn't something he much cared for. It didn't fit his concept of what a ninja should be like. A ninja, he decided, was supposed to be like Aki - who had always diligently done his training, and never spoken a word against it - and yet gone his way to do more than what he was merely required. When the teachers had demanded hundred percent, Aki had always given hundred and ten. And he had done so without being demanded - and without demanding thanks for it. He did it silently and without any expectation of extra recognition - he did it because he could, because it was what he thought ninja should do.

That, Haru decided now, was what he wanted to be. Not this vindictive… teen who felt superiority when others judged him wrong. And, after some thinking, he decided that he didn't just want it - he would become it. Rock Lee would be like Aki was - ten percent extra without expectations of thanks or rewards.

He couldn't be exactly like Aki, though. He didn't want to, either - it would sully his memory of his partner and Haru wanted to keep it exactly as it was. And the behavioural markers Haru had established for Rock Lee didn't work with Aki's personality. Not that Haru had yet established that many of them - but Rock Lee was bit too loud, bit too curious and bit too fascinated by the world around him to be anything like Aki. No, the best way to go was to use Aki as example - and build Lee from there.

Lee would be diligent, hard working and single-mindedly interested in taijutsu. He would also be fascinated by the world around him - which wouldn't hard to simulate, as Haru needed to be in order to smother his chakra sense. And most importantly he would be polite, much more so than was required, much more so than anyone he had ever met, Aki included - and hopefully that would be enough to smother Haru's own, newfound vindictiveness. Lee wouldn't care what others thought - or if he did, he certainly wouldn't be amused about it, not even when they got things wrong.

Genius of hard work, Haru decided. Nothing else.

**16.**

Haru had never expected it, and he didn't quite know what to do with it - but Lee, somehow, ended up being bullied. Haru had to visit the local library to find the term for the behaviour of his class mates, as it wasn't something anyone in Mi had ever done, but that was what it was. Rock Lee, despite being polite and diligent and as kind as Haru managed to make him, was _bullied_.

And his classmates seemed to delight in it. They shoved at him when he walked pass, they jeered at him when he "failed" to gather his chakra - and when Haru spent the recess trying to master this kick or that punch, they threw pebbles at him in attempt to break his concentration. They called him _Thick-Brows_ and _Caterpillar face_ and, sometimes, _Civilian_, which was perhaps the strangest name anyone had ever called him. Civilian wasn't exactly an insult - but his classmates made it sound like one.

"Look at the Civilian, trying to be a shinobi," and "The Civilian is playing ninja again," and "who let the Civilian into the training grounds?"

Haru had easy time not being vindictive about that odd aspect of his existence as Rock Lee - because he had absolutely no idea what was going on. He knew, vaguely, that it was the uncertainties of youth that caused kids to bully each other - that was what the textbook had said - but it didn't mean he understood it.

What was the _point_? Bullying him gained them nothing - no wealth, strength, training or power, except maybe the power to make someone feel bad and others laugh, and that wasn't actually _worth_ anything. So why do it? For the false sense of superiority? For the feeling of strength? For the same reason Haru himself had felt the need to laugh at Neji for calling him a dead last? None of that was worth anything either - whatever power one thought they gained from it never lasted. It wasn't like acting stronger than him actually made them stronger - even if they never knew that.

All it was really was waste of time Haru could've spent training, learning, practicing.

Though, when he thought about it, Aki probably would've found something useful in it. Aki always had been good at that - making useless things useful. Like the task of cleaning the training hall in the Mi orphanage - Aki had been able to turn that into training by going about washing the floor by walking with his _hands_. And the time when they had been assigned with the repair of the practice gear, they had spend the time cleaning also studying how the weapons had been made, and why they worked the way they do - that one had eventually led Haru into learning long ranged weapon attacks. If there was a seemingly useless task, Aki had always been able to turn it into practice of this or that.

Aki would've turned this into study as well. But study of what? The entire thing seemed so meaningless - there was nothing anyone really gained. If there was anything to be learned from it, then it was how insipid children were - and Haru was learning that well enough without needing to try discovering elaborate teachings from midst of it.

"Useless civilian - don't you know this is a ninja's work?" one of the bullies, Taichi, said, prodding at Haru's shoulder when he was working on mastering a certain jump kick - and failing at it.

"If you're a ninja, then why don't you do it?" Haru asked, irritated - and immediately regretting it, because the snappy comebacks were something he was trying to avoid. But thankfully, Taichi didn't notice - only his chest and stepped forward and performed the jump kick, and as he did, Haru realised what there was to be learned from bullying.

Manipulation.

**17.**

Lot about bullying was about manipulation, Haru found as he watched Taichi and his group mess about. Taichi, the leader of the group, was manipulating the others through his opinion and approval. The others milled about him, doing stupid things and getting into trouble, just to see Taichi's nod or grin or have him clap them on the shoulder. In that sense, it reminded Haru oddly of his and Aki's combat teacher, but this was nothing like that, not at all.

Taichi and his group also manipulated others in subtle ways that, Haru assumed, they themselves didn't really understand. Other kids in the class either did what they wanted, or got out of the way - even dedicated ones like Neji preferred to just avoid them, which considering how Neji was, was fairly interesting. He didn't seem like he would ever let himself be pushed around - but he too left when Taichi's group wanted him to leave. It was fascinating, really.

But no where near as fascinating as what they did to Lee was - or what they tried to do. Now that Haru was looking at the whole thing from a different angle, it all became curiously clear. It wasn't just him they were bullying - he was just the target. It was also the other kids in the class - when they pushed at Lee, they were also showing the others that it could be them. More than that, they were showing that they _could_ do it, and no one would get in the way. The teachers sometimes did, but it was rare - usually they just ignored that sort of thing, saying that if a kid couldn't stand up for him - or herself, they weren't fit to be a ninja. And thus Taichi and his friends had free range on Lee - and that had a big effect on the others too.

In real world, the power they got by their displays meant nothing - it didn't really mean anything in the Academy either - but there was still something about it that. Taichi wasn't the best student in their class, not the best fighter or the expert in ninjutsu. He was only average, and nothing more, nothing special. But still, every student in their class _acted_ like he was the best. It was a false sense of superiority, but it was still _something_, and that something made him able to control the class.

Everyone but Haru, who was starting understand why Aki was so fascinated by turning odd things into lessons. Because while Rock Lee acted like the weak, faltering dead last of the class, Haru was learning fast.

He doubted he would ever have the type of manipulation skills Taichi did - that required luck and certain type of personality that Haru didn't _want_ to have. But there were many ways of manipulating people, and Taichi and his group offered him countless of ways to practice. They, being so certain of their superiority over him, made it fairly easy too.

By ignoring them he could make them act rasher, harsher, by paying attention to them he could make them preen and boast - and, most importantly, by disregarding what they said or did, he could actually coax them to show him what he was having trouble with. "This is how it's done, Thick-eyebrows!" they would jeer, and "Hey, hey, Civilian, repeat after me! Bet you can't!"

Haru wasn't getting that much better with taijutsu - he had the wrong body type for it and his bones were weak - but thanks to Taichi, he was learning it faster than he otherwise would have. It and so many other things on the side.

**18.**

The concept that he was incapable of moulding chakra came about accidentally. After months of faking a fail after another, Haru found himself taken to the medic-nin of the Academy, who looked him over and, with sorrowful look, pronounced his chakra coils not malformed, but undeveloped.

"You have chakra, of course, all living things do - but I doubt you will ever be able to mould it," the medic said, looking sympathetic as he cleaned his glasses to the front of his jacket. "The chakra in your coils doesn't move normally. I am sorry. You will never be able to do ninjutsu, Genjutsu or any other ninja art that requires the moulding of the chakra. You are simply physically incapable."

It was the second time Haru found himself wishing to laugh at someone else's ridiculous assumptions. He smothered the urge firmly and instead nodded, not about to straighten the man's misconception - not, when it would've proven clearly that yes, he could mould chakra, he was just wasn't even trying to do it normally. It was a bit awkward, though - he had been hoping to try learning some Genjutsu eventually, so that Rock Lee would be specialist of taijutsu with some genjutsu on side, as it seemed like useful combination. Now, with this, he couldn't.

But that, perhaps, could work to his advantage. The ninjutsu training sessions were time consuming and useless as he never learned anything on them - perhaps he could now use that time for his taijutsu training. He still hadn't learned anything truly useful, as one punch and couple of kicks did not make a taijutsu style, so more time to dedicate to the effort would've been welcome…

"You should quit the academy," the medic said. "You'll never be a ninja."

Haru blinked. "I won't?" he asked, and thankfully the question didn't come out as sarcastic as it sounded in his head.

**19.**

He didn't quit - wasn't going to quit. Mi children did not quit - and _Rock Lee_ did not quit. Instead of giving the medic or the teachers - or Taichi - any say in the matter, Haru threw himself at the target dummies and beat them until his knuckles bleed. Just to show them how little he intended to quit.

And to keep himself from laughing at the whole thing.

That was how the taijutsu teacher Touji Mizuki eventually found him - beating away at the wooden target, breathless and with his wrists aching and still keeping at it just so that he wouldn't break Lee's character. The man watched for a while before noting, "I suspect you don't intend to quit then?" he asked, folding his arms.

"No. Not quit," Haru answered, punching the target again and again. "I can be ninja without ninjutsu."

"Not a very good one."

Not in anyone's knowledge, no. But he would be very sly one. Best ninjas were ones with hidden blades - and if Rock Lee's career would continue from here on with everyone assuming he couldn't use chakra, then he would have a hidden _sword_. Whole armoury full of them, in fact. It was something his old combat trainer would've approved. It was something _Aki_ would've approved.

"You won't make it past chuunin," Mizuki warned him.

"But I _can_ make it to chuunin," Haru more asked than stated, glancing at the man over his shoulder. "With taijutsu alone, I can make it as a ninja?"

"Maybe, if you're this determined with it," the teacher mused, giving the target a look. "You have a lot to learn before you can make it even genin, though. It won't be easy."

"But it is possible," Haru nodded and gave the man Lee's smile. "Thank you, Mizuki-sensei! I won't give up!"

"Work hard," the man nodded before turning away and leaving him to it.

Left alone by the targets, Haru straightened his shoulders and smiled with determination. It would be a great accomplishment, to become a ninja on taijutsu alone - but it would mean more to those who still knew him as Haru of the Mi, the ninjutsu specialist.

Maybe just enough for him to make it.

**20.**

He barely recognized Aki, when they passed each other in the Academy corridor not far from the teacher's lounge. With two of his classmates at his side, Haru didn't dare to look at him too closely - but what he saw was more than enough.

Aki was shorter than he remembered - or maybe he had simply grown more, in months since they had last seen each other. The size was no where as shocking as what Aki looked like, though. His hair was longer and messier. His face was pinched into look of close-eyed confusion and irritation, making him look fairly witless. The worse thing was the clothes. Obnoxious orange jumper and pants, both made of thick fabric and cut awkwardly - not the type of clothes one could fight in.

Aki, diligent, studious and efficient Aki… looked nothing like himself. Actually, he looked nothing like a ninja should've. Bright, awkward clothes were bad enough, but he was also walking heavily and clumsily and -

Ah. Of course.

Haru kept his eyes forward and passed his old partner without giving into the urge to glance backwards - orders were orders after all, and Lee and the person Aki was now didn't know each other. Aki was no doubt under the same orders he was - and no longer allowed to use taijutsu. And considering how naturally fighting had always come for Aki, he had no doubt needed more than mental restrictions - he had needed physical ones. Judging by the weight of his steps and the awkwardness of his gait, he was probably wearing weights to restrict himself even further.

Haru had to wonder if Aki had selected a new course for the person he now was, for Uzumaki Naruto. No taijutsu, probably no weaponry either with his clothes - and, if Aki's orders were same as Haru's, no sealing either. What was left? Ninjutsu, genjutsu, ijutsu…

How odd it would be, if Rock Lee would become the taijutsu specialist and Uzumaki Naruto would be the ninjutsu user.

x

I was actually going to keep on writing this straight from Naruto's pov - but a review pointed out Lee and yeah, I thought it would be interesting. He didn't come out like I thought it would, but I think I like Haru. I think it's because he's a bit older - even if only by a year. He's more self-concious, and has whole lot more going in his head. Aki's more straight forward and simple because he's still more a kid than a teen.

My apologies for OOCness and grammar errors and such.


	3. Chakra and Naruto

**Spring and fall**

**21.**

As a rule, Naruto lost every sparring match against the top students of the class. Sasuke could take him down in a minute and Kiba in two. The others took a little longer but Naruto lost more than he won - and when he did win, it was either by accident or because he was fighting against the worst of the class.

Losing a taijutsu fight was harder than Aki had thought. His reflexes wanted to fight back, to block and duck and deliver precise blow to this or that opening - and there was plethora of openings in all his opponents. The jumpsuit helped some - he couldn't kick high with it and it ruined his aim both with his feet and his arms just enough to make him clumsy. But it wasn't quite enough - he nearly broke Sasuke's rib and Kiba's nose and very nearly delivered Chouji into the infirmary before deciding that something more had to be done before he would break his cover.

He eventually decided that weights could be that _something more_. Buying them was bit problematic as the sales person at the weapon shop didn't want to sell anything to Naruto, but eventually he managed to get them - and was only glad that the man chose to sell him too big, too heavy, too clumsy weight vest, instead of something that was actually meant to strengthen its wearer. It wasn't that Aki didn't want to get stronger - of course he did - but that wasn't the point of this particular exercise.

The vest was just enough to hinder his body to the point in which his taijutsu became unrecognizable mess and his centre of weight shifted back and forth awkwardly, turning him into the inept fighter he was supposed to be. Aki knew he would have to step up his personal training a little to counteract the effects of the vest, the jumper and his own self-sabotage - it wouldn't do for him to _actually_ lose his taijutsu, after all. It was alright though, and in a way it was actually training him - because, even when he didn't mean to, he did try to get around the hindrances. Eventually he would probably get used to the vest to the point in which he would need something more again - but for now it was alright.

And so Naruto lost. He lost and he lost and he lost some more - and while Aki became the master of falling down spectacularly, Naruto's position as the dead-last solidified.

**22.**

He knew that despite the reputation Naruto got, some still remembered Aki of the Mi. There had been dozen teachers who had frequented in the Mi Orphanage - ANBU, Medics from Hidden Leaf's hospital, Hunters… Some of them were retired by age or injury, while others came in times between their missions - some had been specifically assigned to the Mi facility and were there nearly all the time. Though Aki didn't know for sure where those trainers had gone, he knew that many of them were still working as shinobi of Leaf - and too skilled to be let down because of Mi's disbanding.

And those people, still in active duty, knew him as Aki, even when he wore Naruto's clothes.

He could feel it sometimes in the back of his neck or on his temple, the gaze of someone familiar. Even when Naruto got worse and worse, Aki was constantly aware that he was often being watched, monitored. He suspected it was his and Haru's old combat trainer - whose name or even codename he had never learned, but whom he had respected for the man's thorough efficiency and relentless teaching methods. The trainer had been the one whose presence had came to be the one most known to Aki - aside from Haru. And the gaze that watched him now felt very much like that.

He had to wonder though. Why? Mi had been disbanded - no new orphans would ever be taught to be the elite tools of the Leaf Village. He had also gotten the impression that former Mi operatives - and all the teachers - had also been ordered never to even think of Mi again, just like the students had been. So, why was his old teacher there, watching? Was it curiosity or pride, need to see what had became of his old students - because Aki knew well enough, the man couldn't be there just for him when Haru was, without doubt, the better one of the two of them. Or was the man there on orders - the Hokage's or someone else's, there to see that Aki and Haru kept to their orders and pretended not to be what they were? Or was it something else?

He didn't know and he didn't dare to even try to ask - because he _knew_ this and he certainly didn't mind it. There was no one to tell Aki what he was doing right or wrong, no one to give him new things to learn anymore - because the Academy really, really wasn't. To have his old teacher there, watching… it felt good. It felt like maybe he was doing something right with his Naruto charade and by trying to learn things he didn't quite manage, like ninjutsu and such.

For as long as he was watched, he knew he was worth watching. That was greatest encouragement he could've hoped to get, under the circumstances.

Aki often wondered if it was same for Haru - _Lee_, he thought to himself, his name is _Lee_ now like his own was _Naruto_. Did his old partner also stand a little straighter and work a little harder when he felt those familiar eyes on his neck, watching, evaluating? Did he too feel the thrill of accomplishment and approval - that old, nearly forgotten but still very important pat on the shoulder and slight nod, that _good job_ that was never spoken out loud? Did Haru, Lee, feel that?

Or was Aki the only one who still wished things were like they had been - when everything had been clear and easy to understand?

**23.**

"That was fun, let's do it again!" Kiba yelled, dragging Aki away from the scene of their first joined prank, that had splattered their classroom with obnoxious pink paint. "Come on, come on. We need to set this up in the teacher's lounge!"

Aki was fairly certain that Kiba's reason for setting up pranks wasn't the same as his. Kiba's plans lacked the complexity of his own - though they tended to be more spectacular because the end result and the outrage that followed was his only goal. He couldn't understand the point in that - especially since Kiba got caught more often than he got away. Aki didn't think the reddening of Iruka's face or how Mizuki's cheek begun twitching, or how Katsumi would force him on kunai-point to fix whatever he had broken/painted/ruined was worth it. No, the plan itself, the execution, stealth required in both getting in and getting away, that was the point. But, it seemed, it was only so for him.

"You should've seen your faces!" Kiba crowed, after the two of them had been tied up and hung upside down in the teacher's lounge after painting the entire place violet by couple of paint explosives. Aki grinned along side him, but he didn't really feel the amusement - he was only irritated and disappointed and thinking that joined pranks with Kiba weren't really that good for his training, not when Kiba seemed to delight in getting caught.

"You think this is fun? Do you?" Iruka demanded to know, pointing a kunai at them. "Is that all you got to say for your self? Huh, Naruto?"

Aki squirmed - if nothing else, the chuunin of the Academy were very good at knots. It wasn't a situation for the truth, though, and instead of telling them that partnering with Kiba had been a mistake, he scrunched up his nose. "You got a little something…" he said, trailing away while Kiba hooted with laughter beside him, swinging from side to side.

"We'll see how fun it is after a month of detentions, shall we?" Iruka growled.

Aki didn't mind the detentions - if he had, he would've figured out a better method of self training than pranks. The academy usually had simple detentions - writing lines, more of the type of practice the student hated the most, and so forth. With him, it was usually reading and writing notes about what he read thanks to the fact that _Naruto_ hated all things written - which for Aki definitely wasn't a bad thing. But this time the detentions were a bit worse, because he was constantly confused by the whole _fun_ thing.

No, he didn't think painting the teachers lounge was fun. He didn't think any of the other pranks he had done were fun either - though he had certainly enjoyed the challenge of gluing entire classroom worth of chairs into the ceiling, that had been excellent practice. Fun wasn't why he did pranks, despite what everyone else thought - and though he wasn't about to disillusion them as that would've been harmful for Naruto personage, it did made him wonder.

Fun wasn't something he had learned in Mi - or something he had needed there. It hadn't been necessary after the fact either, and it wasn't now. But it seemed to come up all the time. "What do you do for fun?" Chouji would ask. "Sparring is fun, don't you think?" Kiba threw the question at him, grinning. "Do you think this is fun?" was the most asked question, from Iruka and Sakura and sometimes even from Sasuke who had long since gotten tired of him fumbling awkwardly around the sparring mats.

What was fun anyway?

Something amusing? Aki didn't get amused - amusement was an opinion, after all, something that amused one person could fail to amuse another and therefore it had no real value. To be amused could end up being detrimental on battle field - it was a distraction and could sway one's emotions one way or another and end up creating emotional weakness for the enemy to exploit. People could easily take offence from amusement too - this Naruto knew better than anyone, even if his amusement was never real.

Was fun something entertaining? Many times he heard bystanders saying that something he or Kiba had done was fun, even though they hadn't taken part in it - meaning that they had been entertained by the display of the prank. Aki didn't get that, he didn't feel that. There were very few things to be entertained with in the Academy for him. Perhaps, sometimes, he was interested in what the teachers and the students were doing when he was studying body language again, but that was more due to the things he learned, rather than because of the things he saw. And pranks weren't entertaining - they were invigorating, when done right.

Maybe fun was something enjoyable, something invigorating, then? Enjoyment was another thing Aki didn't really think often, but he had to admit that he got it, and lot. He had enjoyed his life in the Mi, he had enjoyed knowing Haru, knowing that he could trust him to have his back. Now he enjoyed the Academy - he enjoyed creating and maintaining Naruto façade, enjoyed going about his true training in secrecy while maintaining the outwards appearance of a dead last. And yes, he did enjoy pranks, but only for the educational value and for the feeling of accomplishment when they succeeded.

Did that make pranks fun? Perhaps. Certainly not in the way Kiba and the others thought, not the way they presumed he found the fun, but yes, Aki had to eventually conclude that pranks were fun.

Figuring that out felt greater accomplishment than even gluing the chairs had been.

**24.**

But there was more for Aki to learn than what was and wasn't enjoyable. Ninjutsu for one. The problem was the fact that controlling chakra was _hard_. Aki had tried to learn it, to understand it - he had gone through a training exercise after a training exercise, and nothing of them seemed to work. He couldn't do anything to the leaf - except make it fall often - and none of the other things he had tried helped him either. It was like all the exercises were just subtly _off_ and he couldn't grasp them.

Another problem he had was the fact that no one of the teachers taught him right. Well, some like Iruka tried, but the methods he used didn't work. Maybe it was Aki's chakra or maybe it was the methods, but nothing quite matched. Aki had always known his chakra was nearly impossible to control - the odd chaotic element to it was too overwhelming - but he hadn't thought it was out right impossible.

But, after nearly a year of trying and not managing to do even the simplest chakra control exercises right, he was at the end of his rope - and the teachers were already whispering expulsion behind his back, regardless of the fact that he got just and just passable grades on all of his classes.

It was especially disheartening when he thought back to Haru and how he had, easy as anything, walked in ceiling, over water, and manipulated his chakra into intricate shapes you could see with plain eye. Aki couldn't even dream of doing anything like that, and he couldn't understand how something which was so difficult for one person was so easy for another. Of course, on flipside he had had taijutsu and his sealing, but even those could've been improved if he had just learned chakra control…

It was that which, in the end, made him subtly break his orders once more - and sneak across the school yard to the fence which sealed the elder students' training grounds from those of the younger students. Haru's class was slightly smaller than Aki's, but not by much - and by the looks of it, it had more civilian based students than Aki's class, which had fairly many kids from clans. That, though, wasn't that interesting for Aki. What he was interested was Haru - _Lee_ - who was working in the corner of the grounds, beating a target dummy relentlessly.

Aki winced with nearly physical pain at the sight of him. Who ever had been trying to teach his former partner how to do a high kick had not been doing a good job. Not punches weren't any better. Wincing against with sympathetic embarrassment, Aki glanced around to see if the teacher was watching. He wasn't.

Perfect.

He added a line to his short message before wrapping it around a small pebble, tying it securely with a rubber band, and throwing it at his friend. Doing it without anyone noticing was child's play - the pranks had taught him easily enough stealth for him to manage that much, even in day light and with over twenty people around. As Haru jerked with the impact on his shoulder, stopping in middle of a punch and staring down to the paper-wrapped pebble, Aki turned and made his escape before Haru spotted him, not wanting to risk being seen and knowing that his partner knew well enough who the message was from, and could figure out how to answer.

_'Problems with chakra control. Suggestions?'_ the short message went, written in their private code, with a hastily scribbled, _'Stance and balance first, THEN defence and offence - in that order,' _below it.

**25.**

Haru answered his message later that day, when Aki was in history class. A senbon needle stabbed the side of the younger Mi orphan's table silently; the paper wrapped around it telling clearly who it had came from. As Aki unwrapped the small piece of paper, spreading it over the page of his book to hide it, he barely managed to keep himself from smiling.

_'Henge,'_ was the title of the message, with detailed instructions below it - and then it went into complex explanations about power requirements, how to calculate power usage versus endurance and so forth, even having some calculations on the side about optimal training schedule and how it would affect his chakra control. _'Henge is taught before the other basic jutsu because it layers chakra on your skin and teaches you to feel it and mould it according to your will. If you can manage henge, you can eventually manage harder control exercises.'_ The message was ended with the question of, _'Which stance?'_

It was start of what ended up being a long and complex correspondence of neither of them making actual eye contact, but still talking more than they had in a year. Aki wrote down list of taijutsu styles and their stances basic, listing their pros and cons and told him in no uncertain terms to _'pick a style and stick to it. One style mastered is always better than dozen known, but barely understood' _- and that his own personal taijutsu style was not for Haru. Haru answered by listing chakra control exercises, their benefits and downsides - and power requirements and preferred training schedules and so forth. Haru also somehow got his hand into chakra paper, telling him to _'always work with what you can do - not against it.'_

They were teachings they had both heard from their Mi teachers - ones they hadn't shared before because their alignments had been so different. Aki was happy to find how easily they didn't not only step back to their old partnership - even when they didn't exchange a single spoken word, or look each other into the eye - but they also went beyond those boundaries. Before they had worked together and though their partnership had been good it had been limited by time and schedule - and a goal they had to reach within certain amount of time. Now, though, they worked to each other's benefit in greater level because they had the time and the old goal had vanished - and gotten replaced by something else.

But it was still a partnership. They didn't bother to ask about each other days or friends or lessons. Aki only needed to see Haru on the training field once to know that his luck with Ninja Academy wasn't any better than his own. And the fact that Aki was asking about something as simple as chakra control probably told Haru all he needed to know as well. Which was just as well - Aki didn't know what he could've said about the pranks or his class mates, or the strange hatred everyone had for him.

Though outwardly nothing changed, in a way everything still did. Haru knew him and his problems with chakra better than he himself did, really - and was able to coax him through learning henge within some weeks. It wasn't good, it wasn't solid like Haru's own henge was and it didn't look anything like human, not to mention about looking like someone specific - but Aki managed to produce it, and that was giant leap forward. And spying Haru's class' training session, Aki could see the improvement in his friend's attempts in learning taijutsu, now that he had a proper stance and knew where his centre of weight was.

It wasn't much; Aki knew that better than anyone. Haru wouldn't be able to learn taijutsu properly without a true teacher. And Aki himself needed more than instructions to learn ninjutsu - he too needed guidance. But he knew now more than he had in the last year - he knew what his element was and that he had no secondary element as of yet, he knew that his chakra was malleable - it just took long time and a beating to get it to that point. He knew he could learn ninjutsu - he even had a fairly rare element. He knew he could do it.

And he knew that elsewhere, just beyond his line of vision; Haru was doing the same - both of them slowly but steadily making their weaknesses disappear.

**26.**

Unbeknownst to all, Aki enjoyed only one lesson in academy, among the dozen it gave. He learned more about Ninjutsu from Haru's messages, so all the ninjutsu lessons were just a waste of his time. The taijutsu lessons were more than that, though watching how the other students steadily got better - or worse in some cases - was in a way interesting. All the chakra theory lessons were meaningless to him, they didn't really teach him anything, and the lessons about rules of Leaf shinobi were things he had known and memorised since he before was five. The infiltration lessons, the survival lessons, stealth… the Academy standards didn't come any where near to his prank-learning sessions.

All that was really left was Leaf Village history.

It was one of the things Aki and Haru hadn't been taught in the Mi Orphanage. Knowing history didn't affect the way they functioned and made no difference to their orders, after all - so they hadn't even known the names of the first and second Hokages, not to mention about the other ones. While they knew geography better than any Academy student ever would, and could point all the hidden villages on map - something most Chuunin didn't know - they couldn't have said exactly when did the Third became a Hokage or why the Fourth had been selected , what was the history there.

The Academy corrected that - and though it _still_ wasn't exactly key information that would make the difference of life and death in battle, it was _interesting_. Aki found himself fascinated by the village politics of the old times, how the atmosphere of the village, around the village, and how the feedback coming from the Fire Daimyo's court affected to the selection of not only the Hokage's, but also his advisors, the village council - and, at times, of the selection of the Jounin. It was all so interesting.

Like how the third Hokage had been selected not because of his skills - because, despite the fact that the man had been great there had been those who were better. He had been selected because of his relationships, his knowledge and his network of acquaintances - which stretched across the nations thanks to the fact that as the student of the previous Hokages, he had been in many political missions. The Fourth Hokage on other hand had been selected first because of fighting ability and second because of political prowess - and considering that his first task been ending the Third Shinobi war, the selection had been important and they had gotten it spot on.

But though he was fascinated by that, he was even more interested by the intricacies of the Shinobi system. It explained a lot of things that Chuunin were selected in public matches that were held in the great five villages - and that the Jounin selection exams were also public, but only to certain high-echelon people, like members of royal courts and such. It explained organisations like the Mi and the Ne and the others, some of which still stood. Because if a village would've relied solely on the exams to produce shinobi, they wouldn't have had that many good ones.

It made him wonder, not for the first time, why the Mi had been really disbanded. In hindsight he could see how it had no doubt appeared to others - harsh and relentless, nearly cruel at times. But as a system it had worked - it had produced ANBU individuals and partnerships, entire squads of Hunter-nin and, occasionally, Medic-nin which Aki knew no village could have too many of. It wasn't humane, but it _worked_ and the village needed it. Why disband it?

The fact that he was asking the question, even if only his head was a clear proof that the disbanding had had an effect on him. At Mi, he wouldn't have asked. At Mi, questioning the decisions of your superiors wasn't allowed. Now though, he did and he had to wonder the wisdom in those decisions. Disbanding Mi meant less shinobi per year - and some years the Mi had produced as many as twenty elite ninja which the village would now go without. How was that a good thing? How was disbanding Mi in any way a good decision?

Maybe it wasn't - and the maker of it hadn't been in fit state of mind. Maybe, whispered the most traitorous thought of all… maybe it would've been better for the village if the Third had remained in retirement when the Fourth had died, and instead gone and selected a Fifth.

**27.**

Aki had never been so embarrassed in his life than he was, when he said _it_. He hadn't been meaning to say anything - certainly not it. But after studying the history of the Third Hokage and coming to the conclusion that there couldn't be any logical reason to disband the Mi - and that the decision was in fact harmful to the village as whole - he had deduced that the Hokage had lost his edge, and was not as efficient as he had once been, or as logical. Therefore, the village needed a new Hokage, someone who could do the right decision and preserve the right traditions, no matter how _inhuman_ they seemed. Like the Mi.

The Leaf Village was a _military institution_, after all. They weren't there to be _gentle_ to their people - they were there to protect them to the best of their ability, to protect the Land of Fire from any hostilities.

But, then Akamaru startled him in middle of a discussion with Kiba about what it would it be like to be a Chuunin or Jounin - or something greater. Kiba was saying about how awesome it would be to be a Hokage - and what Aki had meant to say was that "I think there should be a _good_ Hokage," and point out that Kiba really, _really_ wouldn't be. And yet it somehow came out as "I think I should be a good Hokage."

It wouldn't have _meant_ anything and it would've just faded away - if Kiba wasn't Kiba. "You, the Hokage?" he laughed, uproarious and loud, startling the entire class. "Oi, listen up folks! Naruto thinks he's gonna be our next Hokage! All hail to the Hokage!"

And Aki was too frozen by the slip, too horrified, to even deny it when the rest of the class laughed at him, shoving at his shoulders and making fun. Because that, _that_ wasn't it at _all_! He didn't want to be the Hokage - he had been trained and taught to _serve_ a Hokage, and that was what he wanted to do. He wanted to be the ANBU he had been supposed to become, and live his life to the fullest in service of his Hokage, and that was all he really wanted. To think that he could _ever_ even _think_ of becoming… it seemed like treason to him - and just as unthinkable as stabbing Haru would've been.

Not to mention about the fact that being a Hokage was clearly not an _easy_ job.

But by the time he managed to unfreeze himself from the shock, the moment of denial had came and went and he was left sitting there blinking, while everyone in the class made fun of his new _dream_.

**28.**

When Haru informed him, in a brief message explaining another chakra control exercise and how it should make him master Henge a little better, that his class would have their genin exams soon, Aki was for a moment struck speechless. It was the first message between them with anything personal in it - usually they just exchanged instruction and suggestions about training. But that wasn't what surprised Aki, not really.

Genin exam meant assignment in a genin team.

It was something he hadn't really paid as much mind to as he should've - but he and Haru were year's worth apart from each other. Naturally Haru would have his Genin exam a year earlier. And following that, Haru would get the chance to be selected into a Genin team sooner. Which meant… meant that there was no chance of them getting into the same team.

Of course not, Aki thought, scowling at himself. What _had_ he been thinking - that somehow they would miraculously get to be partners once more in this simplistic exam system? Of course not. Not only were Naruto's and Lee's skills completely different, but they didn't fit the right criteria to make into the same team. Teams were selected due to academicals prowess and certain key skills, even in this system, to create certain type of teams that could take certain type of missions. Of course, Genin teams were more about training of new ninja than they were about actual missions, but as what one learned to be as a Genin one usually continued on as a Chuunin and Jounin, it mattered what sort of Genin team you got.

Rock Lee - whose determination with taijutsu was known even to the lower years like Naruto's class, would probably be part of a combat unit. If he would make it into a team - and he would, of course he would, even if his Academy records weren't good enough the Hokage knew Rock Lee was from Mi and knew more than he let on. Haru wouldn't be discarded because of Lee's records. Naruto on other hand… Aki too had the advantage of hidden skills that would make sure he would make it to ninja. But what kind of team would Uzumaki Naruto, the dead last with chakra control problems, be in?

Certainly not combat unit, not with his taijutsu, as meticulously sabotaged as it was.

It was a frightening thought, Haru in another team, dependant on that team's skills and teacher, with no Aki there to watch his back. And, of course, the same went for Aki too. One day he would have a team, made from the students of his class with a Jounin teacher he had probably never met teaching them - and with no Haru in sight. Frightening - and very disheartening.

While burning the short message - like he had burned every other one before it - Aki had to wonder somewhat morosely if they would ever work as a team like they were supposed to. It could be, though, that Haru didn't even want that - but considering how the kids of their age _were_, Aki couldn't really imagine him not wanting it. It wasn't like they could be trusted - even the most disciplined ones of them were swayed by their emotions and their skills were frankly nothing impressive. Even the best in Aki's class disappointed him every day. It couldn't be all that different for Haru.

And yet, what choice did they have? Genin or otherwise, they were ninja under orders - and those orders weren't there for them, they were for the village. For the general well being of the village.

At least so he hoped.

**29.**

The day of Lee's genin exam, Naruto didn't show up in school.

Aki tried not to think about the implications of psychological meanings behind that, as he pulled on dark grey pants and jacket and pulled on a blank white mask with no symbols and to even facial features that covered his face. Hiding his hair behind underneath his jacket's hood, donning actual shoes instead of sandals and pulling on gloves to hide his hands, he covered everything _Naruto_ in him, until he looked like a nobody in a mask without a sliver of skin visible. It wasn't quite a uniform, and nothing like what he would've worn if he had became ANBU like planned - but it did turn him flatly anonymous.

Aki of the Mi didn't exist, after all.

Of course, anonymity itself was, in way, a paradox in a ninja village. Everyone knew everyone there and at the same time no one really knew anyone. Over half of the village wore masks - and yet everyone knew them. Another half of the village walked around with their faces open for all to see - and often no one knew even what their names were. A masked individual no one knew anything about was always the on to rise suspicion, after all, they were the ones carefully analysed and searched.

But it was a risk Aki was willing to take - in order to see his partner graduate.

So, leaving Naruto behind for a while, Aki set out, hiding in stealth, shadows and facelessness and making his way to the Academy. Figuring out where to go hadn't been hard - all he had needed to do was to break into the teacher's lounge and check Iruka's schedule, as he was one of the ones in charge of the genin exam. Iruka, despite being a good teacher, could've been a better ninja - he didn't even code his notes.

So, sighing and feeling unnecessarily nervous, Aki made himself comfortable on a tree branch just outside the classroom, where Haru's class had their exams. It was against his orders, and his superiors probably wouldn't have been happy to see the lengths he went to, but Haru was Aki's partner. It was his right to see this. Secure in that knowledge and fully willing to accept any punishment in case he would be caught, Aki waited until the exams begun - and then he watched as they proceeded, a child by child, and memorised. Any one of the kids performing their taijutsu could become Haru's team mate - he needed to know if they were worth it.

"The exam is different every year, you know," a familiar voice spoke from behind him. "Spying it now won't give you an edge when your time comes."

Aki didn't glance behind himself and didn't tense, as he heard the Hokage crossing the branch to where he was. There was no use - he was caught and he didn't have the skills - or the desire - to escape. He didn't have any explanations either, so he kept quiet and watched, waiting for Haru's - Rock Lee's - turn.

The Hokage sighed behind him, and then sat down, pulling out a pipe. "He will graduate," the old man said, quietly preparing some tobacco for the pipe. "I arranged the exam specifically to enable him to graduate under the handicap he placed on himself. The exam is usually either ninjutsu or genjutsu - it's the first time in nearly ten years it's only taijutsu."

Aki frowned slightly behind his blank white mask, and glanced at the Hokage, wondering. The old man had seemed so adamant about them becoming _normal children_ and yet…?

The Hokage smiled at him and lit the tobacco. "I arranged so that once he gets into a team, he will have a teacher who can teach him all the Taijutsu he could ever hope to learn," he added calmly, and inhaled through the pipe. "Since it seems so important to him."

"Why?" Aki asked after a moment of quiet.

"Because Taijutsu is something Lee chose," the Hokage shrugged. "Not something that was chosen for him. When the time comes for you, I will make sure you will get to learn under teacher who can teach you what you want to learn."

The younger ninja eyed the older one for a long while, confused. What he wanted? What Haru wanted? Confused, he turned to look back at the window, to see that another child that wasn't Haru was performing for the teacher, displaying his taijutsu skills. All because Taijutsu was something Haru had _chosen?_

Haru hadn't _chosen_ taijutsu anymore that Aki had chosen ninjutsu. The Hokage had been the one to put those restraints on him, telling them to hide their expertise and pretend they weren't from Mi. After that, what had been left for them, except their weaknesses? And while it was true that they could've chosen otherwise - Aki could've decided to study weapons making, or medical jutsu, or anything - same for Haru. But instead they had chosen each other's strengths, their own weaknesses. But it wasn't because they _wanted_ to learn them. They _had_ to learn them - because they didn't have each other to rely on anymore.

What they _wanted_? Was that really what the Hokage thought? It was ridiculous. What they wanted was to be themselves again. What they wanted was to use their strengths, not their weaknesses. What they wanted was things to be like they used to be.

Or… at least that was what Aki wanted. And he had never asked if it was the same for Haru.

Bowing his head a little, the former Mi child sighed. "Ninjutsu," he said. "I… want to learn ninjutsu."

"I'll make sure you can, then," the Hokage nodded.

In the classroom, it was Haru's turn. Aki watched, grimacing and wincing. His partner still wasn't very good at taijutsu. Some of the other students in his class had been much better. But he was maybe a little better than most - and there was definite strength in his strikes. He had been practicing - relentlessly by the looks of it. Haru had always been very thorough, and good at repetitions.

What they wanted, Aki thought, and wondered if he had analyzed their situation all wrong. Despite the fact of skill and orientation, of alignment in seals and taijutsu and ninjutsu and weaponry, of them being taught certain things for a _reason_… maybe what they had been and what they had learned in Mi didn't actually make any difference after all.

**30.**

After watching his partner, after watching Rock Lee, receive his headband, Aki put the mask he had worn away again, oddly disappointed in himself for reasons he couldn't quite explain. He still clung onto the Mi even now, even after over year of it being disbanded. He knew why - the Mi had been better teacher than the Academy was, and he had actually been allowed to learn, not to mention that Mi would've let him and his partner stay together.

But maybe he had clung onto it for too long, for too tightly. It was gone. Aki and Haru were gone, no matter how he liked to think otherwise. Naruto and Lee were all that remained - them and what they _wanted_. Nothing else seemed to really matter. Not to the Hokage - maybe not to their old combat teacher, if it was him periodically checking up on them. And even if it mattered to Aki - did his opinion matter? It never had before. It never probably would.

Rock Lee would be assigned a team before the week would be over. He would have two new team mates - and a teacher that would teach him taijutsu. And for all Aki knew, it was what Rock Lee wanted - what Haru wanted. He would learn and go into missions and people would know him only as Rock Lee…

Aki was oddly tempted to burn the simple, anonymous uniform he had made - to smash the empty mask into bits. Maybe then he would feel something. Maybe then he would feel like a _person_. Like the Uzumaki Naruto he was supposed to be.

Instead, he hid them into the back of his closet and made his way back to school.

xx

Okay. So. Mi is intended to be Mi - Ne, or Root, is differnent. _Mi _means _Seed _- which to me seemed fitting, since it's the village of leaves and with the whole taking orphans and turning them into elite ninja... Anyway. Naruto's and Lee's codenames come, not so cleverly, from their canon clothing. Naruto, orange, so, fall leaves - hence, Aki which means Fall/Autumn. Lee, green, so, spring leaves - hence, Haru which means Spring (which, you know, Beautiful Beast of Springtime of Youth and all...) You can pretend they were named that because Naruto was orphaned at birth, which was autumn time, and Lee was in this noncanonical version orphaned in spring, or something.

My apologies for OOCness and grammar errors and such.


	4. Balance and Lee

**Spring and Fall**

**31.  
**

Making people believe that Lee had no intention of quitting wasn't too easy when he failed to progress - even when all his attention and efforts were directed solely at taijutsu, his progress was minimal to nonexistent. Haru was feeling the reason as to why he had never before been taught taijutsu stronger than ever - and it wasn't just the lack of proper instincts or the existence of plainly negative ones. It was also reflexes and body type; the way his muscles worked… he simply didn't have the physique of a physical fighter. His bones were relatively weak - especially when compared to Aki - and his muscles would never gain the bulk of a truly strong man.

But Haru didn't give up - because he knew, on the other end there was Aki, doing all he could to suppress his more taijutsu oriented instincts. And Aki would be fighting against even higher uphill with his chakra, if he intended Naruto to become a ninja reliant of jutsus. Aki's chakra was about as against being moulded as Haru's was for it, after all.

So, Haru practiced and trained, he made schedules and kept to tem - and went over them - in attempt of creating new reflexes, and enhancing his muscles beyond their usual limits. People had worked against worse odds and came out better for it - people had worked with poorer health than his, and gotten stronger. He would too.

Except for the fact that despite all the training, all he managed to get was aching feet and fists and odd kinks in his neck and shoulders that often kept him up at night. Despite all his tries, neither his punches or his kicks got any better - if anything, the more he tried the worse it got, as he figured out to hit harder and still kept hitting wrong.

"Give it up, Thick-brows," Taichi jeered at him, more and more often. "Even if you punched that target a thousand times, you still wouldn't get it right!"

The worse thing was that Haru was starting to fear it might be true. The teachers sometimes tried to give him pointers - Mizuki corrected his punches and kicks all the time - but he never seemed to improve even slightly. It was starting to really get to him - especially with Neji on the other side of the training ground, punching his target into _splinters_ with his fingers alone.

Then, as he was going through another sequence of kicks and punches, help arrived in form of a pebble that left a small bruise on his shoulder - and ever lasting effect on his taijutsu. Question - and answer to the one he should've been asking. _'Stance and balance first, THEN defence and offence - in that order,' _it said in familiar handwriting, carefully coded and illegible to anyone but Haru - and Aki, whose presence still seemed to linger, even though Haru couldn't see any sign of him.

**32. **

Within a day Haru's anxieties about taijutsu turned on their head. After he answered Aki's question about chakra control and pointed him to the exercise he himself had under gone _before_ he had been taught any actual control exercises, Haru was swiftly rewarded with long lists and explanations about taijutsu styles and stances, what was good for what and what bad. Every message Aki send him was soaked through with his partner's natural fighting instincts - nothing he wrote down could be found in any book. Even when Haru was perfectly aware that Aki had never used this or that style, his partner still could give insight information from it, just by using what little he did know.

Aki was adamant about one thing. The Shuuki style he was most skilled at wasn't one for Haru - and Haru agreed. His partner had developed most of the style himself, drawing from a style their combat teacher had taught him and re-creating it as delicate mix of protective and lethal so that it could be used to protect Haru when necessary, or to use Haru's distractions to deliver the finishing blows. It was, in short, a style for a member of a pair of assassins - like they had supposed to be - and not as good when one was alone. Haru didn't have the natural physical fluency for the Shuuki anyway.

He instead went with the simple stance that was commonly used in several styles - a very basic stance with one arm defending and another ready for offence. With Aki's instructions he managed to find his centre of weight and keep it balanced - and the result of it was surprising and immediate. Before Haru had had irritating habit of faltering little after each kick, having to take a step to regain his balance - but now that he knew to keep his centre of weight level and shifting when needed, he could deliver his blows without having to take a moment afterwards. One blow turned into two and three in session, and they were noticeably steadier.

In answer, Haru helped his partner in understanding henge and then helped him discover his chakra element - which helped in determining the rest of the control exercises. It wasn't exactly good for a Wind elemental to try and do Earth control exercises, after all. Aki still had problems, of course, and probably would have them for years to come. But it was a start - and once he would manage Henge, he could move onto wind chakra exercises and maybe eventually learn some Wind ninjutsu…

Haru couldn't help but wonder how great they could be together, if Aki mastered Wind chakra. With his Fire and Aki's Wind - their attacks would be enormously powerful.

If they would ever get the chance to work together, that was.

In the mean while, Haru would keep on practicing - throwing punches and kicks until they became second nature, until he could rely on reflexes and get rid of his useless instincts. On Aki's suggestion, he wrapped gauze around his fists and feet to lessen the damage gotten during training, and to support his wrists and ankles. He also started wearing small weights while out jogging or walking to increase his strength - it was nothing like the weights Aki could lift, not even _nearly_, but even he had started out small.

He knew that his improvement wasn't missed by others. As he learned to make the target pole _shudder_ with impact as he landed a kick on it, he noticed that Taichi and his friends started slowly backing away and giving him uneasy looks. Haru's - Lee's - taijutsu was no where near as good as the others had, no where near as complex or fluent, but his relentlessness had an effect - and not only on him or the pole which was starting to grow dents, but also on the people.

_'Stretch, stretch, stretch,'_ Aki urged him, and Haru did, until the dent he was making with his kicks got higher and higher - until he was slowly starting to impress himself, until he was actually starting to believe that he might be able to do it after all. He trained and trained, before school, during school and even more after it, breaking the highest record of time spent on the training grounds, and hardly noticing.

That was when Maito Gai found him in the Academy's training field.

**33. **

Haru could still remember his and Haru's combat teacher - and the way man had taught. The speed in which they had had to master things in the Mi had been relentless, and their teacher had been the personifications about that. Haru still sometimes woke up in the middle of the night thinking that he had a day to learn this or that ninjutsu, day to master this and that strategy with Aki - and that if he didn't, neither of they would get any rest until he did.

Sometimes he still felt that stern, steady gaze in the back of his neck - just like back when they had been training - and begun thinking of his mistakes and flaws, what was he doing wrong, what could he do better… Their teacher had been a man of few words - and very telling facial expressions. And as he had stood on the side of the training field, silent as the wall, he still had managed to convey his thoughts. Haru doubted he'd ever forget the feel of that silent, surveying presence. It wasn't that their teacher had been cruel or that they had been harshly punished - but the expectations had been high and their teacher had been nothing if not good at conveying that.

Maito Gai was _nothing_ like that.

When the man entered the training grounds, his presence was impossible to miss - and it had little to do with his clothing. The man just seemed very _loud_, even when he was quiet. Distracting. Even as Haru tried to ignore him and concentrate onto the kicks and punches and keep his weight balanced, he was constantly aware of the man not far behind him, staring at him - making him wonder what the man was seeing, thinking, _doing_ there, in the Academy training grounds, so late in the day.

Then the man spoke. "Bend your knees more." Then, a little later after Haru had begrudgingly done as ordered, the man spoke again. "Level your shoulders before striking." And again, little later, "Start the kick from the hip, not from the knee," and, "Turn your ankle in motion, not before or after - make the turn part of the kick," and, "Keep your fist parallel to your arm."

Haru did as ordered - and could see the easy, quick effect it had. The pain on his ankle immediately lessened, and the punch became harder - and he could feel his centre of weight, steady and balanced. But in the same time, he couldn't help but throwing glances at the man just barely outside his field of vision. He was obviously better at taijutsu than Mizuki - better at teaching too. Maybe even as good as Aki. But what was he doing?

The man behind him let out a thoughtful sound. "You're a bit mechanical," he said, folding his arms. "I hear you lack the ability to perform any ninjutsu or genjutsu?"

Haru frowned, glancing at the man over his shoulder. The man nodded, smiling. "A ninja who only uses taijutsu. Do you think it's possible?"

"Yes," Haru answered without hesitation, turning to face the man. "If there are ninja who can become Chuunin and Jounin without knowing any taijutsu, then the opposite is true too." And with his history with Mi… "I will learn taijutsu and I will become a ninja who uses only taijutsu."

The man nodded again, and then for some reason, gave him thumbs up. "Good goal!"

As the weird man turned and jumped away, leaving Haru alone in the training field, the student looked after him in complete bafflement. "What the…" he murmured, closing his eyes and sending his senses after the man - surprised to find that the man wasn't the only one in the area. The Hokage was there too, not too far away - and weird man in green jumpsuit was heading straight towards him. And, in training ground on the other side of the school, there was Aki - practicing henge, judging by the feel of it.

Shaking his head and opening his eyes to disperse the sense, Haru turned back to the pole again and continued practicing. Mechanical? Because he only followed instructions? What else could've he done?

With a thoughtful frown, he angled his next kick a bit differently, and away from the dent he had made on the pole.

**34. **

It wasn't the last time Maito Gai visited the training grounds while Haru was the only one there. The man eventually introduced himself, as did Haru, and while the younger ninja wasn't entirely sure why the man was so interested in him or what was going on, he found he certainly didn't mind the intrusions - not when in ten minutes the jounin could make such dramatic changes in his taijutsu. Haru knew without pain of doubt that he was still bad, but he was getting better faster than he had thought possible.

As much as he hated to admit, he soon realised that Gai was better teacher than Aki was. Part of that was obvious - Gai was around more often and could correct flaws has he saw them, while Aki could only offer written suggestion and probably hadn't seen _that much_ of Haru's taijutsu. But another part of it was different. Gai, unlike Aki, hadn't been trained for a purpose, so his taijutsu skills weren't so sharply focused as Aki's. While Aki was master of one style, Gai was the jack of several - and though it didn't make him a brilliant fighter like Aki, it made him a much better teacher.

He didn't tell Aki anything about it, though. For one, Aki probably wouldn't have cared - he would've preferred to learn from the better teacher, after all. It wasn't like Haru wouldn't have wished the same for him - if there had been a teacher who could've taught Aki charka control and ninjutsu better than Haru could, he would've been happy for his partner. Surely Aki felt the same. And, of course, there was the fact that sentimentality in training was useless exercise. It didn't matter who you got it from or who you snuffed to get it - as long as you _got it_.

That was at least what Haru told himself while trying not to feel so guilty for thinking that his partner wasn't a good teacher.

While he corrected the errors in his style with Gai's occasional help, he watched his classmates from the corner of his eye, as they started whispering about the upcoming genin exam. Some of them didn't seem to care and kept on their training and lessons like normally, but others stepped up their training and focused on learning bunshin and henge and kawarimi, often leaving their taijutsu completely out of their schedules. Apparently, the genin exam was usually either bunshin or henge.

"At least we'll get rid of the Civilian now," Taichi snorted while talking about the exam with some of his friends. "We'll move on ahead and get our teams, and he'll stay behind. It'll be good to get rid of the burden."

Haru didn't really let it get to him. After all, if it got to that he could've performed four different types of bunshins on command and his henge was A rank, so he had nothing to worry about. It was interesting to see how the priorities of the entire class shifted though - as rivalries were discarded and even Taichi seemed to level down from his top position into being just another academy student, wanting to graduate. On the eve of becoming actual, official ninja, they all seemed to feel that whatever they were in academy now wouldn't mean anything if they got their head bands - and it would matter even less if they didn't.

"Don't worry about it, Lee," Gai told him in the beginning of the week of the exams. "You'll make a splendid genin, trust me."

While faking a reassured smile, Haru was very aware of the fact that that wasn't what he was worried about. If he made genin, if he didn't… well, it would've better for him if he didn't - because then he would be left behind and he would get to attend to the same class as Aki, as Naruto, and maybe even get into the same genin team as him… though, considering the Hokage's actions so far, he rather doubted that. But there was that hope. And if he would intentionally fail the exam…

In his last message to Aki, send over on a handle of a kunai, he informed his partner of the genin exam.

He didn't get a reply.

**35. **

When the day of the exam came - and he heard that the exam would be about taijutsu - Haru found himself nervous despite himself. Nervous and indecisive. For one, he didn't know if his taijutsu skills were yet good enough to pass any sort of exam, even with Aki's and Gai's coaxing he was still very much a novice in that field. And for one… Aki had still not send him any word, given him any direction about what he should do, what he could do, nothing. It would be ridiculously easy to fail the test, and yet… he didn't know if Aki would've approved that at all.

After all, Aki was all about improvement, getting better, getting stronger - learning and developing and using any and all means to do it. Failing something intentionally, while under orders, was all right. But because of a selfish, sentimental reason like wanting to get into certain type of team - rather than leaving it to their superiors to decide…? Despite everything, despite the fact that Haru knew they could've improved so much faster together, it wasn't something that Aki would've condoned.

It wasn't something Haru himself condoned, either. Hiding your strength under orders or as strategic tool, that was one thing - intentionally sabotaging yourself for no other reason than your own selfish desires… that wasn't what Ninja was like. It shouldn't be.

And yet…

"Rock Lee!" Iruka called, and steeling himself Haru closed his eyes for a moment, pushing all his worries and anxieties aside and letting his old training to take over. This wasn't about him. He wasn't his own person, after all. He was a shinobi of the Leaf - and as such he would give hundred and ten percent, and nothing less.

He frowned slightly as he felt a familiar presence just outside the classroom. The Hokage and… He opened his eyes with surprise and hurriedly stepped forward, glancing carefully towards the window. They were both hidden in the tree branches and leaves - but the feeling was unmistakeable. Aki was there with the Hokage - under disguise and suppressing his charka, but there. Present, and watching - and without doubt there to see Haru's exam.

Haru straightened his back and turned his attention to the teachers. "I'm ready, Iruka-sensei, Mizuki-sensei!" he said with determination.

"Good," Iruka nodded, smiling. "The exam will be about taijutsu. I want you to attack this practice target and use three different disabling or fatal hits and then three similar kicks while taking into consideration that your target is a fully grown male with B-rank level physical strength. When you are ready, Lee."

"Right!" Haru nodded and slid into the now familiar stance, keeping his centre of weight in mind. He could feel Aki's gaze in the back of his neck, as he rushed forward and delivered the blows the best he could, making them was precise and strong as he managed. First what would've been the man's neck - crushing blow to the larynx, enough to disturb the target's ability to breath, possibly even crush his wind pipe. Then to the stomach, directly into the midriff, with enough strength to make indent in the wood - it would've knocked a fully grown man from their feet. And finally a blow up to what would've been a man's chin, snapping their head violently back, maybe even breaking their neck.

As Haru moved onto the kicks, he wondered what Aki saw - the improvement, as little of it as there was… or the flaws he was making, the faltering of his stance and the quivering of his balance and the fact that he would have an enormous bruise on the top of his foot after this - and that he had probably strained his right wrist? Probably both. Grimacing slightly at himself, Haru knew with painful clarity that what he had learned was pathetically weak and clumsy - wishing he would've had enough time to practice, and chance to talk with Aki face to face, to have him coach him through the motions.

But he hadn't, and this was all he could do, and as he stepped back with achy foot, slightly breathless and more than little tense, he hoped he hadn't just made Aki watch him lose.

Iruka nodded and wrote down some notes, before giving Mizuki a look. The white haired taijutsu instructor folded his arms, looking Haru - no, Rock Lee - from top to bottom, before nodding. "Six blows, two of them fatal, all of the disabling," the man said. "I say you pass."

"Yes!" Haru exulted before managing to control himself enough to accept his new head band.

But as he turned to the window to see if Aki was looking, he could immediately tell his partner had already left.

**36. **

_'Did you want me to fail?'_ Haru asked in a message wrapped around a needle, which he threw into the ground at his partner's feet that evening, after the Academy had emptied of both student and the twenty nine brand new genin, who would be receiving their team assignments in the following day. For the first time since they had started their correspondence, Haru didn't immediately dash away after delivering the message, and instead stayed standing in the academy's rooftop, watching how four stories below him on the ground, Aki unwrapped the message and read it.

Aki glanced upwards only briefly, before fetching his backpack and taking out a note pad to answer. He wrapped his message around a rock before throwing it up at Haru, who caught it easily - and who nearly dislocated his hand in doing so. Wincing, the elder of the two Mi orphans rubbed his wrist, partially worried about the strength Aki had put behind the throw, partially impressed. Such easy feat of massive strength - and all the while under who knew what weights. He could only hope he would one day be as strong.

_'No. I hope you get a good team mates, '_ Aki's message read. It was both confusing and telling, and while Haru puzzled over it, in the training grounds below his partner stood up and begun walking away, apparently not expecting an answer.

It felt like a goodbye. A very abrupt goodbye.

Haru scowled, and jumped down from the rooftop, manipulating charka into the soles of his feet to take the impact. "I did think about failing intentionally," he called over the distance between him and his retreating partner, whose shoulders tensed at the sound of his voice. "I would've, if you had answered. I might've been put into your class if I -"

"It's better you didn't," Aki snapped back irritably, before sighing and shaking his head. "We're not supposed to talk."

Yeah, just like they weren't supposed to write to each other, probably. "Aki -"

"Naruto," his partner said. "It's _Naruto_, Lee. That's how it's going to be. What we had, what we were - none of it matters. There's just Naruto and Lee now - and they don't know each other." The blonde boy's shoulders slumped. "Good luck being a genin. You probably don't need it, though."

The elder boy frowned. Didn't matter? Like hell it didn't. Scowling, he took the rock Aki had thrown his message on, and tossed it after him - nailing him directly into the middle of his back. "I'm not going to forget," he said sternly. "And I know you're not," he added, and then sighed as the other refused to answer. "One day, maybe we can be partners again. As Lee and Naruto."

The younger boy tensed for a moment before crouching down and picking the rock up. "As Lee and Naruto," he murmured, straightening himself once more. "_Wanting_ it will never make it _happen_. But… it could be nice." With a shake of his head, he tilted to the side, pulling the hand holding the rock back before whisking it at incredible speed over the training ground fence and the trees behind it, sending it flying across the sky.

For a while they both looked where the rock and vanished, silent and tense. "We can try, right?" the black haired boy finally asked. "Nothing stops us from _trying._"

"I… I suppose nothing does," the other boy answered after a moment. "Trying something, though… I don't know if that means we've come far - or fallen really low," he muttered, before throwing a smirk over his shoulder. "Let's try then, Lee. Work hard on your taijutsu. It really sucks."

"You're the one to talk, Naruto," the elder boy called after him, smiling awkwardly. "You charka-challenged ninjutsu-user wannabe!"

It seemed a better goodbye than what it could've been. And, more importantly, not quite as final.

**37. **

Feeling a little better about himself and about his partner, _Rock Lee_ set out to the Academy in the following day, eager to meet his new team mates and new teacher. He had lot of learning to do and hopefully he would have a good teacher to learn under. With _Naruto_ still in the academy for another year at least, he wouldn't be in that big of a hurry to improve his taijutsu, but it would be so much easier to learn if he had a decent teacher. And then, the next time they saw each other, maybe he would have more to show than just fumbling of a complete beginner. Maybe Naruto would too.

It was oddly relieving to allow the name - which was, after all, his _birth name_ - finally settle in. Over year of resisting the concept of being _Lee_ rather than _Haru_ had left him oddly tired and weary, like he was fighting invisible opponent he couldn't quite beat. Now, though it sill didn't sound like _him_, it sounded like something better. Rock Lee wasn't as much a person or a ninja - or even an alter ego - as it was a promise.

Promise he intended to keep.

When he got to the Academy, most of his class were already there, waiting for the rest and their teacher - and for the announcement of their teams. While taking his usual seat by the front, Lee looked the others around him. He could see the ones who thought they were getting into same teams, and the ones who were hoping to get into team with this or that person. He himself didn't bother with such assumptions - they were meaningless as they could know before the assignments were given - though he admitted, getting someone like Neji into his team would be been interesting - and useful. Neji was the top rookie of the year, mainly because of his superb taijutsu. Learning with him would've made Lee learn faster too.

But whatever he would get would be fine. He wouldn't quit, wouldn't back down and wouldn't stall.

"Hey, hey Civilian," Taichi whispered from behind him. "I hear jounin can kick out useless genin from their teams. Wanna bet on how long it will take before you're kicked out?"

Lee ignored him and the snorts coming from Taichi's friends, and instead concentrated to the front of the class as Iruka walked in, followed by a line of other ninja - all of them wearing head bands and vests with the Leaf village's spiral on their shoulders. Jounins. Lee could sense how the entire class straightened their backs and turned their attention forward, as Iruka cleared his throat.

"Well then. It's an important day for you all," the chuunin said, smiling. "You've all passed your primary genin exams and earned your headbands. Congratulations, you are all now officially adults. Now, as all of you are no doubt aware, you will be assigned teams of two other genin and a jounin-sensei, who will be teaching you from here on. Does anyone have any questions?"

Few did, and once the ones about what sort of missions they would get and when did they get to do the cool stuff and when would they be promoted to chuunin and how had been answered, Iruka started announcing teams, reading three names at a time from his list before pointing them to this or that jounin and telling them good luck.

"Hyuuga Neji," Iruka read, making almost everyone still left in the class perk up. "Rock Lee and Tenten. Your teacher still seems to be missing -"

Just as Lee and the others looked around, Neji scowling, Tenten looking curious and Iruka frowning with disappointment, the door was thrown violently open as someone yelling "Dynamic entry!" very nearly crashed in. Lee's eyes widened a little more as he saw Maito Gai, giving the remaining class a thumbs up while grinning widely, and suddenly Lee had an odd, sinking feeling.

"Well, alright then," Iruka sighed, shaking his head. "Neji, Lee, Tenten. Your teacher, Maito Gai," he said, motioning at the grinning man. "You may go with him."

Well, Lee thought while standing up and following worried looking Tenten and Neji who was scowling even harder. At least he now knew for certain that he would have a good taijutsu teacher.

He wasn't quite as certain about the rest of it, though.

**38. **

When they were comfortably seated in pavilion near the Academy and Gai was done introducing himself, Lee had no choice but to be impressed. After he had seen his partner wearing a fool's expression and the suicidal colour of _orange_, he had thought he had seen the most flamboyant ninja possible. But Naruto, even in his orange jumper, was no match for Gai's sheer exuberance. It was nearly horrifying, actually.

"And that's who I am, Hidden Leaf's Sublime Green Beast of Prey!" the Jounin finished his introductions with a thumbs up, while Lee felt just about the way Tenten looked and how Neji was desperately trying not to look. "Now it's your turn, my beautiful students! Tell me your youthful strengths and your dreams in this springtime of your youth!"

"You… you go first, Lee!" Tenten said, prodding his side with her elbow. "Go on."

Giving her a look, Lee rubbed his side and inched away from her. She had sharp elbows. "I'm Rock Lee," he started awkwardly. "I, uh… I want to become known as a great ninja who only uses taijutsu - and I guess that's my dream too?" he more asked than stated, while Gai smiled encouragingly and nodded with satisfaction.

"Most excellent dream! Your fires of determination burn brightly! Now you, Tenten! Tell me your most youthful strengths and dreams for future!"

Squirming a little under Gai's wide grin, she laughed weakly. "I'm Tenten, I… my strengths are my weapons knowledge - and I want to become a great kunoichi like Tsunade of the Sennin - the greatest kunoichi known," she said carefully, giving their teacher an uneasy look.

"Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant - you are glowing with brightness of your future!" Gai boomed, making her jerk slightly back with surprise. "Now Neji, share with us your strengths and goals!"

The number one rookie harrumphed, giving him an unimpressed look. "My goals are irrelevant," he said. "What fate wills happen to happen will happen whether I or someone else dream it or not. My strengths are what they are - if you had done any research about us, you should know them and I shouldn't need to tell you. You're a ninja after all - research is part of your job description."

"Now, now, Neji, that is most un-youthful!"

The long haired boy rolled his eyes. "I'm _twelve_. I don't need to _be_ youthful."

Lee gave him a surprised look, while Tenten snorted with badly muffled laughter. Gai looked between the three of them while Lee wondered if Neji actually had a sense of humour somewhere beneath the scowl. Then the teacher pumped his fist into air. "Sharing a joke and a laugh! This is a great sign for our team - this will surely be a most gregarious and youthful companionship!" the man decided. "Our team shall surely go forth and become great in this beautiful springtime!"

But, despite being a very… flamboyant character, Lee hadn't been wrong in his initial conclusion about Gai. He had a very varied knowledge of taijutsu.

They spent most of their second day as an official team in the training grounds, just fighting. The reason as to why Neji was the top rookie of the year became plain obvious, as the three students fought against their teacher in messy unison and, after some time, Neji was only one left fighting. Lee still didn't have the stamina necessary for combat and Tenten, who was weapons specialist mostly leaning on long-ranged combat and throw-weapons, wasn't as good close-quarters. Gai, on other hand, seemed to be made from same wood as Aki, as Naruto - even after hours and hours, he still had stamina left.

"I'm starting to get where the whole youth thing comes from. He probably got stuck in it, stamina wise," Tenten panted as she and Lee took a break to just watch how Neji tried - and failed - to get past Gai's defence.

"If that's what this, I want to get stuck in youth too," Lee answered, rubbing his aching fingers.

"What a youthful thing to say, my most beautiful student! Come Lee, join your team mate - let the fires of your youth burn bright!" Gai enthused across the training field. Lee groaned but did as asked, hoping that he'd still have fingers left after this.

If nothing else, with teacher like Gai he was bound to start catching up with Naruto eventually.

**39. **

Later they learned that the all out sparring session had been their second genin exam - and that, without even knowing they had been tested, they had passed - while great many of the other teams hadn't, and were send back to the Academy. Trying not to think whether it was because of their supposed skill or because Gai was, well, Gai, Lee accepted the surprising information with a slightly confused shrug, and moved on. It wasn't like there was much anything else to do, really.

They started their missions soon after. Logically Lee had known that at first they would be simple - mere D-rank missions which might've just as well been called chores. With a teacher like Gai, though, a chore wasn't as much as a chore as it was epic task to embellish one's youth, or something like that. It gave Lee the impression that Naruto would've rather liked Gai - they both seemed to have the habit of turning uninteresting tasks into training. Picking weeds turned into practice of speed and aim, carrying supplies was weigh training, and so forth. Only Gai wasn't quite as elaborate or subtle as Naruto would've been - but then he was the type of man who entered the room shouting "Dynamic entry!"

He wasn't at all a bad teacher though - actually, if Lee would've had to compare them, he would've had to admit that Gai was maybe even better than the combat trainer in Mi had been. Gai was very thorough and knowledgeable - and in seemingly constant state of training himself, as much a student as his students. Within few weeks Lee's own style was improving rapidly, while Tenten was learning to use her weapons in new ways. The greatest testament of Gai's knowledge about taijutsu and such was Neji, though. Neji fought in a taijutsu style limited to the Hyuuga clan, called Juuken - and not only did Gai know it, but he could fight against and he could teach it.

Watching them go at it was pretty impressive.

Fairly depressing too, though. Neji improved literally while Lee watched him - while his own taijutsu was still very basic, and very weak.

"Neji has the advantage of a bloodline with a history of using Juuken," Gai told him later, while Lee bandaged his bleeding knuckles after a day of abusing a wooden target. "His body is practically designed for fighting. You have harder road ahead of you, because your body, despite its unfortunate disadvantage, is more like that of a ninjutsu user - better at producing chakra, than physical strength or speed."

Lee snorted softly. In that he knew he was superior to Neji - Neji, as it happened, didn't use more than the basic ninjutsu required to graduate from the Academy with top score. He would probably never check his chakra element or learn ninjutsu, because like all Hyuuga he was focused onto to the bloodline limit of his clan, the Byakugan. So, in a ninjutsu match…Well, Neji wouldn't be much of a match, really.

But Lee had never felt actually inferior to Neji - or superior. It was useless comparing to Neji or Tenten, or even to Gai, under the circumstance. If he felt like doing comparisons, he compared his team mates with Naruto - it would've been interesting, seeing Shuuki and Juuken facing off. But he himself? There was no point comparing a hidden ninjutsu user into a team of taijutsu users.

"I just feel like I'm not up to bar," Lee admitted. "Neji got the Byakugan and the Juuken, and Tenten has her weapons. I'm just…" he sighed. "I guess I'm worried or being the weakest link in the team, being as I am." If they would ever take serious missions, he wouldn't be much of a use for the team, not unless he broke his cover and the Hokage's orders - and his promise to Naruto.

"Then we will have to step up your training," Gai said. "I've noticed you use most youthful weight training while jogging? Let's start with that, shall we?"

**40. **

"Do you really think you will make it as a ninja when all you can do is taijutsu - and even that very badly?" Neji asked him, during another training session. "The message your body is sending you - that you're a complete failure - has to be clear even to you."

"My body hasn't said anything of the sort, Neji-kun," Lee answered, not even looking at him, and instead repeating the kata he was doing again and again. With wrist weights, weigh nest and weighs in his ankles it wasn't exactly easy, but he could feel the effect, as his muscles strained to complete the movements right.

"Unable to produce and mould charka, and body ill suited for taijutsu…" the rookie of the year snorted, folding his arms. "What's the point, really? All this effort will be for nothing - nothing's ever going to come out of it. A failure is a failure."

Lee frowned slightly, but didn't give his team mate the pleasure of getting a reaction out of him. "Is that what you think I am?" he asked instead, moving his right hand to defence and stretching his left hand forward in slow-motion strike. His hand shook slightly under the weight.

"That's what _everyone_ thinks you are."

"Then I will prove _everyone_ wrong," Lee answered, closing his eyes. Over year of listening to Taichi had taught him how to handle this type of things, and he wasn't about to start a fight when he was barely able to move.

"Yeah, right," Neji harrumphed and turned to head away. "You should give up. It's sickening to watch you try to impossible."

"Then look elsewhere," Lee muttered under his breath, giving his retreating back a sideways glance. Then he snorted, and moved onto the next part of the long kata, sweating under the strain. He didn't know what was Neji's problem, exactly, but whatever it was he wasn't about to make it his own. If Neji wanted to be pissed off at him because he wasn't good or dead last, then he was welcome to. None of it meant a thing, after all.

As tried and very nearly failed to keep his centre of weight balanced, he wondered with kind of team Naruto would have - what kind of team mates.

xx

Alrighty. There was a meeting of sorts and Gai was fun to write. As was Neji, for some reason.

My apologies for possible grammar errors.


End file.
